unexpected right choice
by apjain
Summary: Four year old Harry does what he thought he never would. He ran away only to stay on the streets. But fate brings him back to his uncle, who abandoned him. what would happen if a certain coven of vampires are determined to help him escape hell? And what happens when Voldemort turns soft on an unexpected child? read n find out... rated T just in case.
1. preface

Dumbledore walked along the streets of muggle London on his way to Privet Drive, looking at the many owls and shooting stars flying across the sky and occasionally stopping at the many parties and celebrations that were going on everywhere, irrespective of their muggle surroundings. For once, every witch and wizard were celebrating, dumping away their fears for good, for the dark lord, Lord Voldemort had finally fallen, and the cause for his death? A young one year old boy named Harry Potter!

Dumbledore finally reached Privet Drive, his long and thin body draped with long robes and a purple cloak that swept the ground, and his old long grey beard and hair swaying, which were long enough to be tucked into his belt. His blue eyes were light yet bright, and were twinkling and sparkling with obvious happiness as he stared around through his half moon spectacles, until his gaze rested on a cat settled on a brick.

"_**I should have known!**_" He muttered.

He chuckled to himself, and took out a something from his pocket that looked a lot like muggle cigarette lighter, though it wasn't one. Dumbledore looked at the cat once more, smiled at it, and then clicked the lighter, and the nearest light went off. He clicked again a few times until all the lights were off and the street was covered in absolute darkness. He turned his gaze back to the cat but found himself staring at a severe looking lady.

"_**Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall!**_" He spoke to the woman, and together chatting, they headed off to "_No.4, Privet Drive, London._"

"_**How did you know it was me?**_" She asked him, furrowing her eyebrows.

"_**I am sure no one would have ever seen any cat sitting so stiff!**_" He chuckled again.

"_**You would be stiff if you were sitting on a brick all day!**_" She muttered to him. He, for an instant, looked surprised?

"_**All day, when you could have been celebrating?**_" He asked, and the conversation went on so between the headmaster and professor for some time until she asked.

"_**Its… Its true?**_"

She asked after a long conversation about anything and everything, finally arriving at the topic of the Dark Lord who had fallen just recently, the people he killed, the way the wizarding world were celebrating, the many rumors that were passing around about the possible cause for his fall until it touched the topic of one Harry Potter, and his now dead parents. Dumbledore just nodded glumly at her question.

"_**After all he's done... All the people he's killed... He couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding... Of all the things to stop him... But how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?**_" She asked, already in sobs for the death of the boy's parents, who were once her students, and one of the bravest aurors of the light's side.

"_**We can only guess.**_" Said Dumbledore. "_**We may never know!**_" McGonagall nodded and pulled out a laced handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as they waited for Hagrid to arrive with the boy, now also known as "_The chosen one_" or "_The-boy-who-lived_".

Just as the Headmaster told McGonagall about his trust upon Hagrid, in came Hagrid flying in his scooter, before landing in front of the professor's and handing them the boy, who was merely a baby. They lay the boy in front of a door with a letter (Howler) placed over him, and left, weeping as they wouldn't be seeing him for another eleven years at the least.

Off went Harry to his relatives' place, to spend almost his entire childhood miserably.

Harry shouted and twitched in his dream as he saw, like he often did lately, a clear review of the events that happened three years back when he was just a year old. In his dreams, Harry knew he was a wizard, knew he was special, knew he was the '_boy-who-lived._' He just couldn't place it properly once he awoke, and he couldn't ask his relatives, as they got mad whenever Harry spoke about his dreams.

Harry awoke suddenly when he saw the bright green light being aimed at his father and mother. Harry looked around, yet was still there, at Privet Drive, asleep a few moments back, but no more, not for long. He could hear footsteps outside, and knew it was time to awake. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.

"_**Up! Get up! Now!**_"

Harry sat up with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.

"_**Up!**_" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove.

Harry groaned and went back to sleep. This had become a daily practice, or should one say a mean of torture that went on and about in the Dursleys' residence. Harry hated it, but there was no getting away. He could still faintly hear the frustrated footsteps of his aunt, which implied he would be receiving his first round of shouts sooner than he expected.

"_**Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon.**_"

Harry groaned.

"_**What did you say?**_" his aunt snapped through the door.

"_**Nothing, nothing…**_"

His scar, as he reached up to his forehead, was still there. Only a car accident; that was the truth it seemed after all. Voldemort was never there to threaten him, they were just nightmares and the 'boy who lived' turned out to be just an average kid, waking up underneath the staircase at 4 Privet Drive to lead a regular life.

After about an hour he was off to playschool with his cousin and his friends. He hated this too. Having to walk with them. He would have preferred walking alone than with them. The silence and loneliness was more welcome to him, than his cousin and his friends company! Harry looked at the sky longingly, as though someone would just come out of there, pick him up, and leave. In his musings, he did not notice Dudley throwing his bag at him, and it caused Harry to fall.

"_**You dimwit! Could you not even catch a bag properly? That was a new bag, and now you have it all dirty.**_"

Harry received a kick and then a punch right on his face, and there, his nose was all bloody and broken. Harry stood up and dusted him off, and then bent down. He picked up Dudley's bag too and dusted it off before he flung it back on his shoulder too, as he muttered a "_**Sorry!**_"

He was only though greeted with five more bags being thrown at him, which he again failed to catch, and hence gained more punches and kicks than he could take. What were they thinking; I was only a three year old boy, not a twenty year old cricket player in the role of a fielder!

Harry groaned, picked up all the bags, dusted them off and started walking shakily due to the weight. But he knew it was not done yet! He still had his uncle and his Aunt Marge who was arriving today to face. He groaned inwardly though he showed no such emotion on the outside.

After school once Harry reached Hell, as he called Privet Drive, after receiving the same treatment from Dudley and his friends on his way back as in morning, He went in and put his school bag in his cupboard and closed himself there, as he always was supposed to do, until he was called by anyone. He knew he would be out once Vernon was back with Aunt Marge.

Much to his dismay though, Vernon arrived not two hours, but just an hour later. Harry shivered as he thought about what was coming his way! He did not want to get beaten yet again, though there was no way out and he knew it! As soon as uncle Vernon arrived, Dudley Dursley threw himself at his dad and aunt. What else could you after all expect from a mere two year old, though he did not act so when they were out or at school!

"_**Duddykins! My darling! How I missed you!**_" Squealed Aunt Marge, as Vernon hugged his "cute" son tight. As soon as Vernon let go, Aunt Marge grabbed Dudley and pulled him into a bone crushing hug. Oh how Harry wished it was a little more effective! Aunt Marge finally let him go, but not before grabbing his cheeks and pulling them and planting a big kiss on them.

"_**Urgh!**_" I muttered on seeing that. I hated when she did that. I wonder how Dudley could take it, but if he couldn't, then he very much deserved at least this for hurting and trashing Harry everyday and beating him to pulp. Harry saw as he backed away a few steps from Aunt Marge and clung to his mother before speaking to his father.

"_**Father! I. Want. A. New. Bag!**_" He said emphasizing each word with big pauses, and giving it a bit of a childish tone. Uncle Vernon looked at him.

"_**And the one I bought you yesterday?**_" He asked him, and anyone but this stupid family could see the "fake" rage bubbling in Dudley's face.

"_**Harry threw it in the puddle on the road when we were on our way to school!**_" He said, wiping away a fake tear, and smirking as he looked at the door of my cupboard.

"_**Why that little whore! He had the audacity to-**_" Aunt Marge started but stopped when Uncle Vernon reddened.

"_**Harry Potter! Out here, now!**_" He yelled. Harry paled and got out of his cup board, praying to which ever god was doing this to him to just stop and that he was sorry for whatever he had done. He went out and stood in front of his uncle shaking.

"_**Your hand boy; give me your hand, and hold out your right leg too.**_" He sneered. Harry's eyes widened. Shaking, he held out his right hand and leg and shut his eyes tight. He then started screaming as Uncle Vernon placed a burn each on his right hand and under his right foot.

"_**Aaaaaahh! Am sor… Aaah… Sorry uncle…. Aaaah… Uncle Vernon! Please…. Aaah… Please stop it! Aaaaaaah**_"

Harry screamed out his lungs, but no, Vernon wouldn't as much as move from the place. He just wouldn't budge. As soon as Vernon let go of the now crying boy, Harry was met with a slap square on his face.

"_**You Idiotic Brat! You had the audacity to throw my nephews bag in a puddle? You imbecile brat!**_" Another slap!

"_**Walk out and start cleaning his bag. It must be spotless when Dudley takes it to school tomorrow!**_" Another slap as Harry opened his mouth to object.

"_**Not a word out of your mouth boy, not a word. Not a word must escape those lips of yours. You are to keep that bloody mouth of yours shut till the day ends.**_" Harry again opened his mouth to say something as he held up his hand, and was slapped again!

"_**I do not care if it hurts! You more than DESERVE it! Now out! OUT!**_"

She snapped at him, and looking defeated, and totally broke, with tears running down his eyes and staining his shirt, or should one say Dudley's old tattered worn-out clothes, Harry nodded and walked away to wash his bag glumly. And the rest of the day was spent without a voice escaping from Harry as he washed Dudley's bag, in spite of the pain from the fresh burn on his palm and below his foot. Harry later slept without dinner in his cupboard, looking like a bundle of tears, with hands as red as burning wood, totally burnt and worn out.

When he was merely three, Harry was awoken early each day, just like this. Every day passed in a similar fashion for Harry. He had to make breakfast for the family, go to playschool and finish schoolwork too, serve as a punching bag for Dudley and his friends, and at times his uncle Vernon too. Harry spent his childhood regretting every day of his miserably spent life, and only wished that one accident, in which his parents died, as they told him, had never occurred.

But life was not as easy for Harry as it seemed though, being a wizard, he often had outbursts, which resulted in him performing some magic without his own knowledge. His relatives called him a freak for this abnormality in him, as they called it, and due to the threats of his aunt, uncle and Dudley and his friends, he had to live a life with no friends.

But Harry was not a high willed man as many would have thought him to be, seeing as he had defeated a Dark Lord when he was merely a year old. He was a weak and puny little kid, who received thrashing, from him cousin or uncle almost every day, and was made to live in a cupboard under the staircase, which he didn't like a bit, not that he could complain. He could take no more of this miserable life. He ran away!


	2. run away

Harry was not sure if it was late in the night or early morning when he ran away, all he remembered was the darkness of the cupboard under the stairs he was enclosed in. He remembered how he stumbled in the little cupboard, looking for his very few possessions: a few sets of Dudley's old, loose, ratty clothes, an old worn out blanket, his broken glasses and a bundle of cash he succeeded in stealing from uncle Vernon's cupboard. He had also managed to thieve away "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy from Dudley's room, which he never read, and neither would he miss.

He remembered how the lock of the door of his cupboard had suddenly burst when he was enraged merely an hour ago, and how he had stealthily taken Dudley's bag and filling it with his possessions, ran away. He had, on his way, managed to thieve away his aunts first aid case, a few fruits and a packet of bread to last him a few days. He smiled as he thought about how he sneaked and ran away from his own personal hell. He smirked as he thought about the enraged yells of his uncle, whom he had locked in his room, when he had woken up from the noise Harry was making. He seriously had become a bit evil.

After that, all he could remember was the sound of the wind rushing by, caressing his hair and ears as he hurried away from everything he had ever suffered, running away from being 'normal' in the process. He had finally escaped uncle Vernon's round of beatings and shouts of anger, aunt Petunia's scoffs of disapproval and shrieks of disgust, Dudley's taunts and punches and his friends' punches. He had indeed run away from being 'normal' and was free to be a freak that he was, as his aunt so rightfully put it. He remembered his uncles rattling about how he was a liability on his head, about how he had ruined three happy lives. He knew they were…, No! _He_ was better of this way. At least he could make sure no one would find him, for as long as he could help it.

Running came easily to Harry than he thought. He was confident and fast on his legs, considering how short they were, how short he was. He was also a very puny kid for his age, and his body was littered with bruises and scars from the many beatings and punches he received from uncle Vernon, Dudley, and Dudley's friends. The wind rushing against his body seemed to soothe and calm his racing, enraged mind, and his thoughts became more and more clearer with each passing moment, with every step he took forward, and the fact that he was indeed free and would probably never be going back if he could help himself finally settled in his mind, and he couldn't help the small smile that tugged at his lips. He felt ecstatic. He was _free_!

He stopped in his tracks for a brief moment, to take in his surroundings. The night was very cold, and he felt thankful that he had the 'blanket' with him, to cover him with. The sky was dark, littered with stars, and the moon was round and silvery in the heavenly sky, but he noticed, it was not a full moon. The stars shone everywhere, silvery, soft and dim, sparkling in the beautiful vast sky, and a few clouds drifted lazily across the sky. He eventually grew tired and his pace slowed and soon he was merely walking through the streets, taking in the dark shapes of the trees and buildings that littered the place.

He was reminded by his tiredness, how he should have dozed off hours ago. But here he was, walking with his eyes wide open, not wanting to sleep and wake up the next day to realize it was all a dream. He sighed and settled under the shade of a tree on the grass below. His eyes felt heavy with sleepiness, and were dropping by every second, and he struggled to keep them open, until he finally gave in was soon found in a deep slumber. But he was woken up from his sleep abruptly to the feeling of someone shaking him. He jolted up to see that the sun was out, and that 'number 4, Privet Drive' was nowhere to be seen. He had indeed escaped. It had not been any dream, everything was totally real. He had indeed run away from Privet Drive, run away from his personal hell, and had dozed off under the tree he was standing in front of.

He had slept through the whole night, and was in what seemed to be a park. There was a path around the park, meant for the morning joggers, benches near the path, a few slides somewhere near the other side of the park, and he was sleeping in what looked like a picnic spot, and had been woken up, probably, by the park maintainers. He took in his surrounding, before returning his gaze back to the male who had woken him, who was, at the present moment, glaring at him. Harry, almost instinctively took a step back from him, reminded of uncle Vernon from his glare.

He muttered a sorry to the tall figure of the man, before collecting his belongings and, stepping around the man, walked away. As he ran further away, in this case, from the man, he realized, for the first time since he had run away that he had absolutely no idea where he was and he knew not where he was headed. He gave no thought to where he would be heading off to. All he had thought was to grab his belongings, some food, leave and run away to never return. He had run away from his only relatives, his so called 'family' hoping to never be found again.

His steps began to slow down. He was no longer running. His steps had slowed down to a jog, then to a walk, till his pace came to almost a stop. He didn't know where he was; he had no plan where to go; he knew not a soul in this, 'where ever it is' area, and he knew not the way back to Privet Drive, not that he planned to return. He frowned and stopped and sat down in a corner. He could feel eyes boring into him, and looked around, only to find a pair of big brilliant golden eyes of… an owl! He shrugged, turned back, got to his feet, and resumed his running. He felt tears strain his cheeks as he realized he had no idea what to do now, now that he was indeed free.

He was still in a residential area, but the houses weren't as neat and tidy as Privet Drive's. Weeds and plants grew haphazardly in all of the yards, and the paint on most of the houses was peeling. Vines were starting to grow up many of the walls of the houses. Some of the shingles on the roof were missing or falling off, most of the doors were boarded up, and many of the windows were cracked or broken completely. He'd never been this far from the Dursley's before. The houses here looked much more comfortable and more casual than Privet Drive had, and this more than anything made Harry nervous: it was as though it had taken until now for him to realize that everything was going to change. Harry gave an involuntary shiver.

Then something hit him.

His steps quickened again as he realized something that he should have known all along: _Wherever I'm going, it's got to be better than what I'm leaving behind._

_**Meanwhile…**_

_"__**My lord, are you sure?**__" a man clung in dark back robes asked feeling unsure. _

_"__**Doubt me, will you?**__" a cold steel voice sneered as it replied._

_"__**N… NO! No m… My… My lord! I wouldn't a… da… dare to. My apologies, my lord.**__" The man in the black robes stuttered, as he fell to the ground in front of the figure of what looked like a baby… head bowed in submission._

_"__**Get up Wormtail, you worthless idiot!**__" the creature sneered. Wormtail complied with his 'lord' and got to his feet, keeping his eyes low, not meeting the blood red eyes of his lord, which were now flashing with fury. _

_"__**Ye… Yes, my lord! But blood of the enemy…?**__" He asked, thoroughly confused. The creature just shook his head, glaring at Wormtail._

_"__**The Potter boy is merely four years old; of course you have to kidnap him! Its' not a very hard task!**__" The creature snapped, glaring daggers at Wormtail. Wormtail, on the other hand, gulped before he moved his gaze to the floor as he spoke. _

_"__**But we know not of his whereabouts, my lord! The boy disappeared after… after th… that night…**__" Wormtail stuttered unsurely, barely in a whisper, shivering out of fear, as he replied to the dark lord, not wanting to meet his gaze. _

_"__**You are a worthless idiot, you imbecile! Just get me the book!**__" _

_He snapped at Wormtail, as a snake slithered into the room towards the creature, hissing as she wrapped itself around the creature. The creature smiled at the snake, looked up at Wormtail for a brief moment, eyes filled with anger, before turning back to the snake and shaking his head, before hissing back to the snake. _

_"__**Well, don't just stand there, GET ME THE BOOK!**__" _

_He snapped again and watched with a smirk, as Wormtail stuttered out of the room in hurry, clearly afraid of the creature. He returned a few minutes later, carrying a rather large book in his hand and handed it to the creature he called his 'lord' still keeping his eyes low. The creature sneered but took; more like snatched the book from him none the less. _

He flipped through the book looking for a suitable, yet powerful spell or potion or procedure to resurrect him. He found another spell that might work to return him back to power. It looked much more promising than the other one too. He cursed himself at not having come across this spell earlier. He looked at the other spells, to make sure if this was the most powerful one, and it indeed was. This one was supposed to return his soul piece to his own body instead of the scaly thing he had now. It just needed one pint of blood of one of his servant's, and then six pints of blood, from any human, but must be taken entirely from the same person, and other ingredients which were not very hard to find. In other words, he would need to sacrifice the life of any one human. That wasn't anything that would prove to be challenging. He smirked before turning his attention to Wormtail, who was still standing with his head bowed down.

"_**Get me these ingredients and a human to sacrifice; I want everything for the resurrection ceremony to be ready by tomorrow evening.**_"

And with that, he handed the book back to Wormtail, and demanded him to take him back to his room. He was tired, and was done for the day. He needed his nap. It was, after all, a big day the coming day. He smirked at the thought of having his body back, and that also meant having his powers back, his death eaters back wrapped around his fingers, the fear back, the days of his glory would be back. And the day for the Potter boy to die too would arrive eventually, really soon, when he least expected it. He decided keeping his return a secret for the better part of the year, having his entire army of death eaters out there looking for the Potter child. He had lived long enough.

The next day came soon, and he woke up to the warm feel of the rays of the sun falling upon his sleeping scaly form. He opened his eyes to meet the warm rays of the sun. He peered out the window, to look at the calm atmosphere. It soon would not be the same. While right now it was full of muggle people and a few wizards, it would soon be full of muggles being abused and worked up worse than house elves, and the only wizards to patrol the streets freely would be his followers. Any wizard who went to the light side, and they would be dead the moment any of his death eaters lay eyes on him. Horror and fear would return to the country. He admired the calm blue sky, the bright sun, the chirping of the birds, the swaying of the trees as the rustled in the wind. He knew he was not some nature lover, and him admiring the climate and environment seemed ridiculous even to him, but he was just in a very happy mood, that he couldn't help it.

He turned his eyes away from the window and towards the door, as it opened to reveal the scared form of one Peter Pettigrew, whom he called as Wormtail. He probably had everything for the ceremony ready, and was here to give his master his breakfast, as he always did. He entered the room, bowing low, and keeping his eyes low, not meeting his lord's eyes, as was his practice, he made his way to his bed. Seeing as his master needed someone to feed him, and tend to him as he way so tiny, and it was impossible for him to help himself. He settled the tray on the bed and started feeding his master. Once done, he wordlessly left the room, and started making the final arrangements for the ceremony. The dark lord smirked as he saw his servant work.

"_**Not long now…**_" He muttered to himself, as he lay back on his bed once again, his eyes closed, just enjoying the feeling of his happiness.


	3. return of evil

The dark lord woke up again, this time to the feeling of being sucked into a tube. Once the feeling was gone, he opened his eyes to find himself in the arms of Wormtail, who was standing in the Riddle Manor living room; in his Manor's living room. The son of a bitch, he arranged for the ceremony to be carried out at his manor, not once worrying or caring or fearing the importance about asking his lord's permission. He cursed under his breath, promising Wormtail an indeed torturing and painful night once he was back to his power.

He looked around the Manor; his Manor; as Wormtail started walking to one of the many rooms. He had not been here for a rather long time. He had missed the feel of the power of his Manor, which was just as powerful as its owner, as him, as the dark lord himself. Once Wormtail entered one of the rooms, he walked up to the bed and lay his dark lord down on the bed, for him to rest some more, before they could start their ceremony. It was then, that he realized that the eyes of his lord were wide open. He was no more asleep. _He_ had waked _him_ up somewhere in the way. He immediately stepped back and bowed; his head down in submission.

"_**My… My… My lord… I did not… Not mean to wake… Wake you… Wake you up.**_" Wormtail stuttered, his voice dripped in fear, as he stayed on his knees, his head still bowed, so as to not meet the Dark Lord's red murderous eyes. The dark lord, Voldemort, merely sneered.

"_**Rise Pettigrew. Have the preparations been done? Is everything ready to carry out the ceremony?**_" Voldemort hissed at his servant. Wormtail obliged, but kept his eyes low.

"_**Yes… Yes… Yes my… My lord! The preparations… have been... been completed. The ceremony can… Can be started and…**_" He trailed off uncertainly. Voldemort merely shook his head as he asked his servant to pick him up and proceed with the ceremony as planned. Wormtail obliged with his masters wish and picked him up from the bed and walked back down, to find it now full of death eaters.

The death eaters were all looking uneasy and scared. Voldemort smirked at the sight. But in a corner stood Snape, Luscious and Nott who were talking amongst each other as the others were, but with no trace of fear. Voldemort's smirk broadened at this. He had three very loyal servants, who followed him merely because they wanted to. On seeing him enter the room, in the arms of Peter Pettigrew, all the occupants of the hall bowed down before him. Voldemort smiled, feeling the fear rolling out of them.

"_**My lord!**_" Snape spoke clearly, "_**If you may allow, may we proceed with the plan and perform the ceremony now?**_" He asked him, eyes full of loyalty.

"_**Yes, my loyal death eaters, you may!**_" The dark lord, Lord Voldemort, spoke in his rough whispery voice.

Snape merely bowed down once more, acknowledging his master, his lord, before stepping forward and taking the dark lord over in his arms from Wormtail. Voldemort couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face. He was going to be powerful once again. Then he would kill that Potter boy once for all. Snape looked at Pettigrew, more like glared at him, before turning his gaze back to the form of the dark lord.

"_**Which loyal death eater's blood do you wish to use, my lord? We are all at your service!**_" Snape spoke, his voice full of sincerity.

"_**Use the worthless bint, Snape. Blood is not going to strengthen me, the other ingredients would. So, you may use Wormtail…**_"

Lord Voldemort hissed as softly as he could, in the rough voice he now possessed. Snape nodded at his master before turning back to Peter Pettigrew. He raised his eyebrows at Wormtail, before nodding towards a cauldron placed right in the centre of the room, with an exasperated sigh. Peter looked like he would run away. He eyed everyone scared, eyes pleading for help, but to no avail.

He set his gaze on the floor as he walked towards the cauldron and sliced his hand deeply with a cutting curse, and hissed in pain. Once the cauldron had enough blood of the servant, Snape smiled at Luscious who smirked before bringing in a strong looking muggle. He was indeed strong. He was a wrestler in the muggle world. Snape nodded, and Luscious nodded at the crowd, and the death eaters all sliced the human with many cutting curses at once, sending the man to ground, and causing blood to flow out mercilessly from his blood.

Voldemort watched as the man slowly lost his consciousness, as his lifeline, his blood was forced out of his body and into the cauldron. Once the six pints of blood was collected in the cauldron, they threw the man to the corner, for the later entertainment of the few female death eaters, if he stayed alive till then. Snape then stepped forward, and softly dropped the dark lord into the cauldron, to receive a hiss from the dark lord, the blood was indeed boiling.

Snape, expertly avoiding the hisses and shouts of his lord with a simple silencing charm, moved on to drop a phoenix feather and a potion made from the philosopher's stone into the burning blood. Nott had indeed succeeded in stealing the potion formed from the philosopher's stone. The blood boiled and then started changing colours rapidly before settling at a light blue. Snape conjured a wooden spoon and started stirring the blood, with the dark lord in it.

He then added three spoons of the life essence potion into the blue fluid. He added the female unicorn's horn powder, a female unicorn's tail hair and a dragon heartstring, and stirred the liquid clockwise three times, and anti-clockwise three times, before the potion in the cauldron slowly became colourless, as it boiled. Then a grey colour smoke erupted from the cauldron, and from within the smoke stepped out the most powerful Dark lord that ever existed, Lord Voldemort.

"_**My loyal death eaters, I would really appreciate it if you could close your open mouths and someone HAND ME A ROBE!**_"

The dark lord joked. While the others in the room flushed and looked everywhere but at him, Snape stepped forward and handed him his robe. He seemed to be unaffected by the fact that the dark lord was naked. The dark lord eyed him cautiously; he was not his favorite death eater for nothing. As soon as the robe was on the dark lord, covering his body, Snape bowed down and retreated his steps back to his position.

"_**Could anyone find the whereabouts of one Harry Potter?**_" He asked calmly, hoping for a positive reply. He waited for a few minutes, and soon lost all his patience on not receiving any reply.

"_**Did you find the BRAT?**_" He snapped.

Luscious stepped forward, his head held down in fear and respect, as he spoke.

"_**We couldn't find him my lord. He had disappeared since the day of the fateful incident of your temporary fall!**_" He stated, with his head still held down.

Voldemort grew red with rage, and everyone could feel the anger rolling off of him in the form of pure raw uncontrollable magic. Everyone in the manor shuddered under the feel of his anger, and started giving silent prayers to Merlin, as they scrambled away from the dark lord, as no one wanted to be on its receiving end of the dark lord's fury. But something no one ever expected to see happened, the dark lord tried to calm himself before he spoke.

"_**I want the ministry under my control. Do as you should. I also want the army of my death eaters back. Ask everyone to report to the manor tomorrow precisely for dinner. We have things to discuss as well as a celebration concerning my return to power. Ask the giants and werewolves if they remain by our side, send my orders to the dementors to release all the death eaters and abandon Azkaban, as I require my servants back. Approach the vampires and send them my proposal to join us. And Snape, Malfoy and Nott, I need a list of death eaters, wizards, witches and vampires, who are skilled in the art of tracking. Am I understood?**_"

He spoke all this in a single breath. The death eaters all stared at him in utter disbelief. They had hoped to see him a bit weaker than before, so they could fall back into their roles before the dark lord grew powerful once more, before having to face his wrath upon any mistakes or failures, but he seemed to have grown rather more powerful than before.

And the dark lord had not calmed down, **not in the least bit**, for he had dumped all his jobs, the terrific and suicidal ones on his death eaters. The only ones free from his wrath seemed to be Snape, Malfoy and Nott, though that was expected of them. It would have been a shock if they had been punished too.

"_**Answer me!**_" He snapped, for none of them seemed to answer, and he was losing his patience, until Nott stepped forward.

"_**It will be done my lord; we would look after it ourselves!**_" He stated gesturing to him, Malfoy and Snape.

The dark lord merely shook his head at his death eaters; he wondered why he ever took such cowards into his inner circle. But seeing them shiver under his gaze brought him pleasure nothing else did. He smirked as his three most loyal and trusted death eaters ordered the others around, and as they bowed before him and left.

He then ordered the three death eaters towards him. The three glanced at each other, as a strange aura surrounded them, deliberating their loyalty. The dark lord smirked, as he knew this only happened around his most true and loyal subjects, and these three had done something to prove themselves. He smiled in spite of himself, a genuine smile at that. The three men then stepped forward.

"_**Before you leave for your assigned task, get me a list of the death eaters who were not present today, though they were outside Azkaban, the names of those who betrayed me. And Snape, go and bring in the muggleborns and their families they have captured, they understood my purpose to be totally different, they were not supposed to keep them down there, but to dispose of them if… if they disobeyed.**_"

Snape nodded and bowed deep before leaving to summon the muggleborns and their families. For he knew, that the dark lord did not have the same views as his ancestor Salazar Slytherin. Yes, he was crazy for power! Yes, he had horcruxes! Yes, he hated muggles and muggleborns! And yes, he thought that purebloods must be given more knowledge and power than the others!

But unlike Salazar, he did not believe that the muggleborns must not be educated. That view of him had changed long back, during the three death eater's schooling, when a muggleborn witch named Lily Evans, whom he had killed a few years back, whom he knew, was Snape's true love, and had proved herself by being the top of her year, beating every pureblood in wits and intelligence.

And the death eater knew about this view of his, when the dark lord had accepted of his love. Had Lily not hated him for being a death eater, they would have been happily married, and not one sulking down on the earth, serving the dark lord, and the other somewhere in the heaven, killed by the same said dark lord.

Snape returned with the muggleborns in a few moments, who were, much to everyone's surprise, released, and were warned to never cross his path ever again, for they would have a hell to face, should the things be so. And with those threats and low courteous bows to the dark lord, which were compelled out of them, the muggles scrambled away from the manor.

They ran away leaving the muggleborns inside the manor at the mercy of the dark lord... A few muggleborns who had accepted to join him had been released immediately, and those who chose to remain neutral, though were mercilessly tortured were freed too. Those who chose to join the light side were tortured to insanity and then killed, which proved to be an entertainment to the dark lord.

Satisfied by the days meetings, the way things had gone, and the entertainment he had achieved at the end of the meeting, the dark lord collected the names of the traitors from the death eaters and sent them off to commence their own task, as he himself left to capture the traitors. The dark lord returned at dawn with around thirty tortured captured wizards and locked them up in the dungeons before retiring to his bed, with the thoughts about the turn of actions twirling in his head, as his eyes drooped close.


	4. fate returns

Harry Potter ran through the many streets, living upon the few fruits and bread packet he had for weeks. He had been on the run since he had left the abusing dreadful fate he faced at the Dursley's household. As he ran about the many streets, and maybe towns and villages, he came across many who faced the same fate as him, the only difference being they were either dogs or cats or any other pets. Harry took it upon himself to help these poor creatures, and together, they threw their fate behind and ran. Where to; they knew not.

As they ran about, Harry stumbled upon a broken banner. He turned it to stare into the painted version of his own eyes. He blinked, as one of his refugees, a puppy, came forward to lick his face soothingly. He smiled looking at the puppy, thinking about the affection the puppy was capable of showing him, and then turned his view back to study the banner. He was not shocked to see that his relatives had declared prize money of a few thousands to anyone who found him and sent him back.

He then found one of the parrots staring at the poster curiously before tearing it in two halves with her strong, now healed, beak. Harry blinked, thoroughly confused by the otherwise calm bird's behavior and eyed her questioningly. The parrot flew upon Harry's shoulder and then back to the banner, as if ordering him to look at it. Harry stroked the bird's wings before taking him off the banner and placing her on his shoulder softly and carefully, before peering back at the banner. He frowned at the caption on the banner.

"**Harry James Potter: four year old impudent child wanted by his relatives immediately, and also charged for the crime of theft in his own and neighbors' houses.**" It read. He frowned at the caption. But he was not surprised from the caption. Not in the least, for this was expected of his relatives. What he was surprised about was the fact that they actually wanted him back. But that did not mean he would go back! Not in a thousand years. He tore the banner into bits and pieces and continued on his journey to Merlin knows where.

But he was not as surprised as he had hoped. Not in the least bit. For before he could even cross the corner; he was cornered by a seemingly poor and greedy person, who somehow managed to recognize him from the now torn banner. The stranger grabbed him by his collar and yanked him back on the ground. He fell with a thud and hell in pained a lot. The man then tied him up and dragged him and threw him in a darkness confined room.

Harry's companions tried to get him free, but in vain, as the stranger simply threw them off him and then attacked whoever dared to take a step towards the door of the dark room with a long cane. The parrot and three puppies tried at the same time, but they could not get past him. But they managed to blind the man and also had him bleeding terribly all over with the many bites from the puppies and parrots, but the stranger managed to land a throw of a large stone on the parrot, and it fell to the ground, bleeding.

The elder dogs charged on the stranger, while the puppies tried to open the door, but they did not succeed until after about fifteen long minutes. Once the door was open, Harry launched himself at the stranger and knocked him off with a blow, then hugged the parrot to him. He took the parrot back into the room with him and snatched the bag off the unconscious man and rummaged through it and after about a minute, withdrew his hand from the bag, clutching the first aid kit.

He lay his blanket on the cold stone floor and laid the knocked out parrot on it. He then carefully cleaned and applied the necessary ointments on its bleeding head. He then noticed that the parrot had scratches all over his body which were bleeding too, and that her wings were torn terribly. He first took the bowl h found in the corner of the room, and filled it with almost the entire remnants of the contents of his water bottle. He then added a few drops of an antiseptic liquid to it, and used one of his clothes to clean the body of the parrot clean of the blood, for it made him sick to watch so much blood.

Harry then slowly, softly and carefully applied the stinking ointments on the various cuts and bruises on the parrot's body, ignoring his own injuries, for the stranger had knocked him off too by hitting Harry with his cane. Harry then washed his hands once the cuts and scrapes were taken care of. Now the only part remained that demanded his attention were the parrot's poorly and mercilessly torn wings. It wouldn't be able to fly for quite some time now.

Harry took the parrot's wings in his hands delicately and started washing it too with the antiseptic liquid. Once he was confident that the wings were now clean, he prayed silently for someone to come to Merlin, or the god or the almighty or who ever heard him. He then quickly rummaged the first aid case for a sewing kit, for he knew his aunt always kept one there in case of deep cuts, which were always used for treating Harry's nasty cuts. They never took him to a hospital. He quickly took the curved needle and threaded it. He slowly and tenderly picked the parrot's wings and started sewing it slowly and carefully with his shivering hands. He hoped his bird would be fine, and that he would make no mistakes.

After what seemed like forever, but what was actually just an hour, the parrot's wings were sewed together with Harry's tiny stitches. Harry smiled to himself thinking that he had succeeded and wished that he had not committed any mistake while sewing. He had only done as his aunt used to do. He then picked the parrot in his hand and made it settle in a position on his hand; that seemed like it was standing or sitting on it. He then steadied the parrot's head and made it drink a few drops of water, before shaking it ever so slightly so that it could wake up.

The parrot woke up startled and squeaked in pain as soon as it could feel himself. Harry smiled at the parrot warmly, thought it was filled with worry and pain, and Harry seemed unsure. The parrot blinked at Harry and looked down at its wings, then looked back at Harry with an expression that seemed like it was smiling at Harry and then it muttered something weakly that seemed like a thank you. It was then that Harry realized that the parrot was trained to speak like humans. Harry picked it up, muttered a "_**Don't mention it!**_" and made it eat almost the entire remnants of his breads.

As if on cue, as if someone had heard Harry pray; the door opened, and Harry's eyes widened in fear, expecting to see his aunt or uncle, and moved to the corner of the room, expecting to be hidden in the dark, and hopefully escape his Uncle's eyesight. But to say he was startled would be the understatement of year. For he did not hear the cruel and rough voice of his uncle filled with anger and hatred, but the soft and calming voice of a man, that reminded him of some fatherly figure.

"_**Hey child! Don't fear me, and step out of the darkness, for if you take another step back, you would crash into the table and fall on the ground which is littered with glass pieces, and would be bleeding, which you already are.**_" He heard the man say.

Harry looked around him, but could see nothing but darkness, total darkness! Harry wondered how the man could see him _and _his surroundings so well, but something in the man's voice urged him to respect it and comply with the man's wish. So, Harry stepped forward, though with his eyes shut tightly. But before he took two steps, he felt a hand on his shoulder and another on his chest that stopped him from moving forward. He opened his eyes, but could see nothing other than darkness.

"_**Oh, you should open your eyes, for I have no intentions of harming you child, and also because had you taken another step with closed eyes, you would have fallen onto the glass table and hurt yourself gravely.**_"

The man then lifted Harry off the child and into his hands and started walking. Harry, as always imagining the worst, started struggling in the adult's hands, imagining that he was gonna hurt him, but as soon as he stepped into the light, the man set him back down and hurried towards the parrot, and started to observe it, and then rushed back to Harry and examined his cuts and bruises. He shook his head pitifully. He then looked at the door.

"_**Edward, don't step in, for you can't resist this much blood, it is just too good. Now hurry home, and set up the medical apparatus. We have a parrot, a few puppies and a child to heal, and remove the entire family from the house. No one is to stay home, no one! Not even you! Now hurry!**_" He then turned to Harry.

"_**Child, you and your… friends! Your friends are hurt badly and need medical treatment immediately. Please let me escort you to my place first, as I can only carry one at a time, seeing as I already have a hurt child waiting on me outside, who cannot walk, for she has broken her leg. I would return for your friends immediately. I need to tend you guys.**_" He then stepped forward as if to pick up Harry, but harry stepped back and eyed the figure in front of him questioningly and doubtfully.

"_**You would?**_" Harry asked him unsure.

"_**Of course!**_" The man replied and moved forward again, but Harry stepped back again.

"_**First the parrot! My dogs will follow you to your place, and they will carry the puppies. I would wait for you here. I want you to tend to them first.**_"

Harry retreated back to the other corner of the room, which was empty, and where he could look around, for it was not covered in darkness. The man looked like he was going to argue, but Harry gave him a determined look. So he just shook his head and picked up the parrot delicately, and a few dogs picked up a hurt puppy each and he stepped towards the door, picked up the girl lying there, whom Harry had not noticed before and left the room, the dogs with the puppies following back. Harry settled comfortably in the corner waiting.

But he knew not that his uncle would reach him before the pale fatherly figure.

Harry sat in the corner, a dog curled up at his feet, as he stroked its fur. For some reason Harry felt at home, even though he was practically living on streets; when he was with the pets he had come to love so much in just over two weeks. The door suddenly flew wide open and Harry stood up with a start. From the little he knew about the man, Harry was sure he was not the kind to scare the shit out of people. He was more a caring and passionate human. One Harry would have loved to have as a fatherly figure to him.

Harry sighed but then came back to the future, and scrambled back farther into the corner, narrowing his eyes at the door. Harry stared at the door for what seemed like hours, but what was a mere five minutes, as someone was giving a good piece of his mind to whoever had thrown open the door like that. Harry could then make out the figure of his abusive uncle enter the dark clammy room. Harry shivered in fear, and the dog that had been lying at his feet, as if on cue woke up at that precise moment and started barking at Harry's uncle.

Harry's uncle merely glared daggers at the dog and stepped forward, daring the dog to attack. He then took in the appearance of the room, the darkness covered room, the dull and weak walls, the shattered glass on the floor, the dusty furniture, and its occupants. He then took in the condition of Harry and smirked. He slowly and cautiously stepped forwards towards he was standing right in front of Harry. He straightened up and was soon standing over Harry; that did not help Harry's fear in the least.

"_**Just the home you need boy!**_" His uncle exclaimed. He then cast a look at the still barking dog that was now crouched in front of Harry, shook his head in irritation and arrogance, and then with one swift movement of his cane, threw the dog away and successfully knocked him off. He then turned back to Harry, gave him a glare, and then picked him by the collar and dragged him away, thanking the dogs for knocking off the stranger for he now got his nephew back without giving up any money.

Harry tried his best to stay rooted at his spot, but to no avail. His uncle soon started dragging him towards the door, and Harry started struggling under his uncles firm and hard hold. By the look of his uncle, Harry knew that he was furious, and that confirmed Harry that he was going to suffer the end of his uncles fury with his cane. On reaching the door, Harry noticed that his uncle had no intention of healing his pets, and hence started struggling again. He then prayed to the elderly man, whom he thought of as an angel sent by god, silently.

"_If you can hear me, please tend to my dog! He needs your attention! Please make it here soon. And if possible come fast and save me too. I do not want to go back! Please hurry up! Please!_" Harry thought.


	5. the car crash

Harry's prayers went unanswered and soon Harry was in front of the car, and in spite of his struggling, his uncle simply threw Harry in with a smooth movement fueled with his anger and they were on their way back to Privet Drive. Harry sat between his furious aunt and a very excited Dudley. Harry panicked. If Dudley was excited, it meant only one thing; a public trashing. Followed by a private one by the hands of Dudley, which were worse, for he used any and every weapon at his disposal. Harry shed silent tears, as he took in the trashed landed upon him by his aunt.

Meanwhile, not a few streets away, Edward could hear the thoughts of an abused and a terrified four year old as he awaited the arrival of his adopted father. His eyes widened at the child's thoughts as he could hear exactly what he feared the most. He could hear how his uncle abused him, for being an unusual child. An abnormal child; which was not his fault. He could feel the fear radiating out of the child as his uncle entered the room. The child's thoughts reminded him of his own adopted sister's past.

But before he could ponder own, he heard the child's pleas. He suddenly froze on his spot when he heard from the child's thoughts that the bloody merciless impudent brat had knocked off his dog, because he was _irritated_. He could hear from the four year olds' thought how he considered his father an angel. An angel sent by god to help him. "_How ironic!_" he thought, for it was in the nature of his species to suck out the life force from the peoples bodies, and his family sucked out the life force off animals. It was then that his adopted father arrived and he heard the child's silent yet loud plea.

"_If you can hear me, please tend to my dog! He needs your attention! Please make it here soon. And if possible come fast and save me too. I do not want to go back! Please hurry up! Please!_"

Edward ran alongside his father to the room, and narrated all he had learned from the thoughts of the child, all about how he thought of him as an angel, how he feared his relatives, how he felt he was an unworthy child because of the beliefs his aunt and uncle had pumped within him, how his uncle abused him, how his cousin beat him up for entertainment, how his aunt enslaved him, how the bastard had knocked off the dog, how he was being dragged off by his uncle, and finally the silent plea to them of the child. He was touched by the sympathetic nature of the child, how he thought about others before himself, at such a young age.

He halted to a stop at the corner of the street as the smell of the human and dog's blood hit him hard. Though his father was not affected by the smell, for he had been a doctor for over a hundred years. The vampire rushed forward and into the room to find the child gone, and the pet lying unconscious at spot where he last saw the child. The vampires face contorted in grief as he picked up the dog and ran back. His adopted son joined him soon, and heard every thought of his father. But one thought made him want to interfere.

"_I am sorry child. I couldn't help you! And neither could I give you my name for you to find me in case of emergencies. I promise to never harm your pets; I deserve the pain of having their warm, tempting and delicious blood flowing in my presence every day. I would tend to them until you manage to find us again to claim back your pets._" The man thought to himself, his mind voice filled with regret.

"_**Carlisle, you know it…**_" Edward started but never got to finish for his father merely shook his head and darted off towards their house.

The doctor entered the house and rushed upstairs where his study was set up in a medical ICU to tend to injured. He lay the dog down on the bed and cleaned it thoroughly until it had not a drop of blood upon itself. He then injected morphine within its body too to reduce the pain of the treatment, as he had done with the parrot. Once he was sure that the morphine had spread through the dog's body, he started his treatment, giving several more injections, applying a few pastes and ointments and also many stitches.

After about three hour, the doctor returns to the living room to find his family discussing about the small terrified kid and his thoughts. He heard Edward tell the family about how the boy considered the father vampire an angel sent by god to help the kid. The doctor sighs as he hears his adopted son narrate the incident to the family. He thinks about the first expression of the kid when he first entered the room. He was terrified and hidden in the darkness, or he attempted to. Then as the boy grew calm, he thought about him as a savior. The vampire shook away the thought and entered the room.

"_**The boy's a natural. If he gets the necessary training he would turn out to be better than me. The boy has talent at healing, I could have…**_" He trailed off. His face then took up a serious expression, and he turned to his family.

"_**Edward, take the family to the room. Make them familiar to the scent of the kid, and I also warn you to hunt before you enter the room, as it is littered with blood, which would also be hard to resist, noting how delicious it smelt. I want you to track the child, and if the situation claims it, bring him back.**_" He then turned away from his family and left the house, reporting to the hospital.

Edward watched his father's figure retreat in astonishment, surprise and awe. He then turned to his family, who wore expressions of pure horror or anger. He slipped into their minds silently, only to be thrown right out by the blow and power of their anger. The family was clearly still thinking about the poor child and his abusive uncle. He took a deep breath and placed his hand upon his mother's shoulder with a slight nod.

Esme left with Edward without another word, and the family followed, just as quietly as their mother. They ran all the way to the room, which took them over half an hour, seeing as it was somewhere in Seattle, which was far away from Forks. Once they reached the outskirts of the city, they divided for a quick snack from any animal roaming nearby, and reported back to the outskirts in about ten minutes.

They then ran to the room, and entered it, and once entering, Edward heard his brother, Jasper, swear under his breath. He knew that Jasper was the newest addition to the family and hence did not have the necessary control over his blood thirst just as yet. Edward moved back a few steps and eyed his brother questioningly. His brother took a few deep unnecessary breaths to calm himself and then nodded at his brother, and proceeded inside the room, where they could smell the child.

Once Edward had the scent memorized, he started following it. But while the scent was unnaturally strong till the end of the footpath, due to the dripping blood of the child, it went mild on the road, as he got in the car, and made it harder for the Cullen Clan to track him, who were no trackers by nature. But Rosalie, Edward's sister seemed persistent, and ran after the mild smell, and the clan took off after their sister, only to stop in front of the broken edge of a bridge.

Harry struggled under his Aunt's trashing, under his cousins firm hold, but to no avail. In not a few minutes, he was bruised all over, not that he was not already. Harry cried, tears fell from his eyes, but no one knew why. Was it because of the pain of the trashing, or because of the pain that no one would see them, no one would stop them? And in his little battle for survival, no one noticed that they were headed off the road and towards the edge of the bridge. Seeing Harry's widened eyes, his uncle did turn back, but too late, for now they were submerged in a lake, fallen off from the bridge.

His uncle felt his fury peak, and he twirled around and upon Harry, but harry could do nothing other than watch them, his eyes streaming with tears that stained his cheeks. Harry closed his eyes in fear as his uncle advanced on him. He sustained their long beatings for a few minutes. He tried hard to slip away from his cousin's clutches while his uncle trashed him, but Dudley held him firmly. Harry sent silent prayers to whoever could hear him that he could survive; at least his pets should survive.

His uncle trashed him hard until he felt his temper concede a bit, though he was not satisfied. But only then did he consider the problem they were in. only then did he consider the fact that they were drowning along with their car. He immediately panicked while looking over himself, his wife and his son, to make sure they were not injured. He ignored the pile soaking in blood lying beside him, they ignored Harry.

Harry, on the other hand, did not panic. He was sure he could handle this; after all he had handled at the hands of his uncle. He knew this would be a matter of a little struggling, but nothing he was not used to. So he started thinking about the possible remedies to his family's injuries, and possible solutions for the problem they were stuck in. He looked around him, considering the conditions his relatives were in, and the possible measures they could manage to take to keep them safe.

Harry knew he was in for another big trashing for very long, maybe until he lost his life, but he cared not, for he was determined to get out of this problem alive, out of this disaster his uncle had caused losing his hold on his temper, of this disaster he would later be blamed for. Harry considered the resources that were available at the current situation. He knew that they had no food, for Dudley's bag was nowhere to be found. So he knew if they did not leave soon, they would starve to death.

He continued observing the car and its belongings and its occupant's belongings for a long time, determining their use to them. He noticed that they did have a few bottles of water with them. He caught hold of them, and handed one to each his uncle, his aunt and his cousin, and once he was sure they were not looking his way, he took one for himself and drank away. Before anyone could notice, he tossed the empty bottle into the trunk of the car and resumed his search.

His eyes then landed on his bag. His eyes lit up. He had a blanket, so he knew he wouldn't freeze, at least not until Dudley himself started freezing, then the blanket would be snatched from him. He had most of the money he stole left, but he was determined not to let them know. He also had his first aid box. He let a small smile grace his lips at that realization.

He took out the kit and without a question, started tending to each of their injuries, leaving his own to be treated after the final trashing, which he was sure he would receive once they got out. Once he finished treating to their injuries, he packed his bag again, prepared to wait for days, if necessary. His eyes then fell upon the phone lying in his uncle's pocket, but before he could utter a word, he noticed that his uncle was trying to open the door.

Before he could warn against it, his uncle had opened the door and hence let all the water flow in. Harry choked at the sudden passage of water into his nostrils. He clutched his bag firmly, determined not to let it go. His eyes blurred from the burning in his nose. Once his eyesight returned to normal, he noticed that he was the only occupant of the car; his uncle had swam away with his aunt and cousin, leaving him behind to die.

This time, he really panicked. He slowly got dizzy due to the water he had breathed into his nostrils and had also swallowed a lot of water. He fought hard to retain his consciousness, for he did not want to stay back in the lake while the others were gone. He was sure someone would return to help him and hence fought hard, but he soon gave up. For he was not only struggling to breathe, but was also shivering. And once he gave up, calming, soothing darkness engulfed him within its clutches.


	6. life or death?

Harry awoke to the sight of white walls and a stone ceiling looking down at him from his bed in, he supposed, a hospital. He looked around the room he was in. It had white walls, with very little decoration. It had four beds, his being the only one occupied. To the right corner was a door that lead to a toilet, he presumed. The room had a lot of medical apparatus he was not familiar with, and a needle was inserted into his hand. He flinched at the sudden pain when he attempted to move his hand.

His bed was soft and was draped in white covers. There stood a table beside his bed with injections, tonics, tablets, and a file with his name written on the cover. He considered the file for a minute before returning to his observations. He saw that the windows in the room were covered with curtains. He opened them, and then noticed that a window was smashed but the debris had been swept away.

Other than the chill Harry felt fine. Until the moment he remembered exactly what had happened before he had passed out, and he felt himself panic, though relief also flooded through him once he realized that he was still alive, very much so. He let out a sigh of relief. He then picked up the file and attempted to read its contents, but to no avail, for he knew to read nothing besides his own name. He was, after all, just four, and was overly bright for his age, but one could not blame him for that either.

Then the door opened, and instinctively, Harry moved away from the door, moving further to the end of the bed, at a risk of falling off. But upon seeing that it was not his uncle or aunt, he relaxed and let go of his guard, only to fall off the bed. The doctor, who had just entered the room, chuckled at his actions. He moved around the room and helped Harry up, only to have him fall upon him unconscious. He swore, as the child kept knocking unconscious. He shook the child once more and once he gained consciousness he offered Harry his hand. Harry took his hand, embarrassed. He then asked the question that had been troubling him for a long time.

"_**Where am I? Who are you? And… And where are my uncle and aunt? Are they…**_" His eyes widened suddenly, "_**Are they here?**_" He asked with his eyes still wide, as if fearing the answer.

The doctor laid a consoling hand on Harry's shoulder. Though he knew nothing about Harry's relatives or the way they handled him, he could see that they scared him, and he did not wish to go back.

"_**You are in a hospital in Kent, child. I am your doctor, and no. Your relatives are not here, and we could not find any details that could lead us to your family. Could you tell us about them.**_" The doctor replied, and saw Harry's green eyes shine.

On hearing that his relatives were not here, that his uncle and aunt were not here, Harry felt he could jump off the roof, and despite his injuries, he would still be grinning due to the good news. His eyes shone with happiness, he had not felt in years. He had never been happier for as long as he could remember. He then saw that his doctor was still waiting for his answer, and not wanting to take any chances, he lied.

"_**Yesss, they were my relatives, and they have a son, three years old. They lived with me at the house. Their names were 'Aunt' and 'Uncle'. They.. They died during the accident…. sharks ate them... Yes, sharks! They ate them. They found them tasty and ate 'em all.**_" He explained, with as much sadness in his voice as he could muster. The doctor just laughed to his heart's content at his comment. Once he had control over himself, he spoke.

"_**Sharks? In the lake? Ate them, but left you? Straaangee!**_" He exclaimed and started chuckling again. He then spoke again. "_**Very well child! Then you would be transferred to an orphanage once you are alright.**_"

Harry knew not what to make of this comment. Should he be happy or sad? He thought over it. He would not have to go back. He could have more friends there. He would not have to wake up at dawn. He would not have to cook every day. He may have to study and do homework, but he would learn. The people will be mean to him. He thought it all over, then flashed a wide grin at the doctor. Of course he should be happy. He would not have to go back to his uncles. What could be worse than them?

The doctor then checked him over once, checked his files, cursed under his breath, and muttered something that Harry could not hear, and then left the room, only to return with two nurse's and another bed, though this one had wheels. '_Great! He is taking me out for a fun ride!_' Harry thought, for once acting like the child he was. The nurses got in and picked Harry up and laid him on the other bed and rushed to another room with glass doors.

Once he got in, the nurse's closed the curtains to the room, and Harry looked in to find three more doctors and five more nurse's in there. He thought nothing of it however, just got confused. They nurse picked him up again and laid him on another bed. Harry sighed in exasperation. This game was no good, transferring him from one bed to another and then another. But once he was on the bed, one of the nurse stepped forward and injected him, while another started various machines, and another set the equipments, but Harry could see no more for he fell into a deep slumber.

The doctor swore under his breath.

"_**The kids got a bloody high fever, his temperatures sky rocketing. He may catch pneumonia soon, and the temperatures not dropping despite our strong dosage of the tonic. He is freezing, and has a terrible cold. He's collected water in his lungs from drowning, and the waters almost freezing into his lungs and making it hard for him to breathe and hence suffocating him slowly to death. He is just a bloody child! A four year old CHILD!**_" The doctor yelled at his companions and co-workers.

His companions uttered not a word, for they knew how much the doctor was fond of children. And they also know how severe his state was. What they did not know was how this child had been treated by his relatives. What they did not know was just how much this doctor loved this particular child. A doctor stepped forward and laid a comforting palm on his shoulder, and the other doctors scrambled away, resuming their previous tasks.

The doctors placed an oxygen mask upon Harry's mouth to keep him breathing, while another injected him, and another set up packets of glucose to be dripped into the child's body through a needle attached to his vein. One of the doctors administered Harry to a shock treatment, but it did not have any immediate effects. Then one of the doctors pressed Harry's chest again and again until he coughed out a minor part of the water, but he still had a lot left, and was still unconscious. But the nurse kept continuing the motion of pressing his chest, to ensure his heart kept beating, as the doctor had insisted as a caution. The doctor hoped he would remain so through the rest of the treatment, and not regain his consciousness abruptly as it happened in the other cases.

The doctor injected Harry with another strong dosage of sleeping tonic, to ensure that he would remain unconscious. He then snaked a long, thin tube into Harry's mouth all the way down his windpipe till it reached the water. He then set up several other apparatus and then watched as the water was sucked out of his lungs slowly by the tube. He then returned his attention to his other sufferings and administered him with many more injections for the purpose of bringing down his cold and fever. Once he was done with the other sicknesses, he returned his attention to the child. After about three more hours of struggle to treat the child, he turned to the other doctors.

"_**Leave the suction catheter in his mouth for another hour to ensure that all the water was removed from his lungs. Otherwise he has been treated, and can be transferred back to the normal ward after about an hour of inspection.**_"

He then nodded towards the doctors in acknowledgement and left the ICU and retired to the comfort of the four walls of his house, and the warmness in the comfort his wife provided. He would return the next day to check on the boy, and keep him under his care for another day or two before dropping him off at some orphanage himself, so he could check on him later if he wished to. But at the present moment, he needed all the rest and sleep he could get, for he knew tomorrow would be a hard day to deal with, though he would not have to perform any other long tiring surgeries.

The next two days flew by in a blur and pain for Harry, and he was responding quickly to the treatment and surgery, and the doctor had assured him that he would be up and about running and playing like the other children his age after about a week. Harry, though made a sad face, everyone could see the happiness flashing in his eyes upon hearing that he could play after about another week. The doctor was just not willing to let him leave the hospital when he was so vulnerable, not under the care of some orphanage ward. And so, while the week went by rather satisfyingly, the doctor hated to have to leave the child at the orphanage.

Harry was telling his farewells to all the doctors and nurses and a few elderly and a few young patients he had befriended in the hospital during his brief stay. His doctor presented Harry with a box of chocolates, one of the nurses a bouquet of his favorite flowers and a few patients had given him clothes, books, and toys to play with. Harry had to get a new bag to stuff all the toys in, and he then got into the car with his doctor.

They drove half the way chit chatting about anything and everything. The doctor told him about how he found him, how he first met his wife and how they fell in love, how he loved children, how he would have loved to have Harry as his own son and such. They stopped in the way at an ice cream parlor to have a sundae that Harry loved; very well aware he would not get to eat them often once he got to the orphanage. After the short break, Harry fell asleep as soon as they resumed their travel.

When they had almost reached the orphanage, Harry was lying asleep with his head on the doctor's lap, as the doctor stroked his hair affectionately. His eyes landed on Harry's bag which held his belongings. He opened it and rummaged through it, only to close it again five minutes later, swearing under his breath. He drove off, but not towards the orphanage, and stopped in a lonely street. Seeing the kid sleeping peacefully, which, in Harry's case, was rare, he left him in the car, locked him in and walked away.

He walked along the lonely street until he reached the glass doors of a big shop, and stepped in. He walked in; grabbing everyone's attention, curtsey to the odd hour of visiting. His eyes swept the shop looking for a familiar place, he walked up to her. Stopping in front of her he smiled wryly at her. The lady returned his warm smile and gave him a warm brief embrace before stepping back. She then looked at him expectantly, knowing very well it was unusual for the doctor to visit at such odd hours of the night. The doctor looked uncomfortable before he cleared his throat.

"_**I need everything, express service, packed within the hour.**_" He then turned to walk away, but turned to the lady once more. "_**And yeah, he is just a four year old kid, and have the lot delivered to this address, if you can.**_" He handed her a card of the orphanage, gave her a parting smile and walked away, back to his car.

As soon as he opened the door of the car, he saw that Harry was half awake, and… half terrified. He cursed himself mentally for leaving the child unwarned of his sudden disappearance, got in the car and lay the head of the kid back on his lap, and once he made sure of it that the child was comfortable, he started the engine and drove off, this time straight to the orphanage.

When he reached there, he opened the door, got off the car, walked up to the wards, and gave them a long lecture about the health condition of the four year old, the way he needed to be treated, the everyday dosages of his tonics and tablets, the regular weekly visits to his clinic, and about the certain cautious steps they needed to take around him. He then returned to his car, lifted Harry in his arms, carried him inside in his arms all the way to his room, lay him on his bed, placed a light kiss on Harry's forehead, and departed.


	7. an orphan?

The morning was an unusually calm and warm one. It felt like the calm before a storm struck, Harry thought. He then shook his head at his own ridiculous idea. He had just escaped the storm, he couldn't possibly be returning back there. He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was the bright sun glowing in the sky through the window. He smiled. The morning was filled with the soothing chirps of birds. He then realized that the hospital had no such windows right next to his bed and looked shocked. It was then that he remembered the previous night's events and realized that he was now an orphan, in an orphanage.

Harry sighed, a sad sigh at the realization that he was no more with his doctor. He would miss him, and the other doctors and nurses too, for he had really mingled in with them. He shook his thoughts off his head. _No use thinking 'bout them now!_ He thought. He looked around the room. He shared his room with three more kids. The four beds lay beside each other, and next to each bed was a bedside table, with an alarm clock. He noticed that the room also had a small shelf off books, and a drawer of a few toys. The room had four small closets on the opposite of the beds and had a door leading to the toilet at the far end of the room.

It was then that Harry's eyes fell upon the big bags that lay upon the ground in front of his closet. Harry walked forward and opened one of the bags curiously. Harry's face fell at the sight of the toys in the bag. He assumed that his roommates were either the wards favorite kids, or they came from rich families before they were left at the orphanage. However his belongings were nothing in front of this stuff. He shook his thoughts and jealousy aside, looking at the calm sleeping faces of his roommates before grabbing a towel and entering the toilet for a bath.

He returned from the bath after twenty minutes, taking his time to soak his body in the warm water soothing over his stitches. He walked out of the toilet wrapped in his towel only to meet the curious eyes of his three wide awake roommates. Harry gave them a small smile unsure of what to do and muttered a "_**hi**_" with his voice soft. But to his surprise, the kids just beamed at him.

"_**Hi Harry!**_" one of them, the oldest one, piped in. "_**I am Sam, this is my brother tom and that is my sister Diana. Welcome to the family.**_"

Sam welcomed Harry warmly and introduced each of his roommates to Harry indicating each one. Sam seemed to be the talkative one among the three, and also the eldest, almost ten years old. Though, Tom seemed less enthusiastic and was about seven years old. But he smiled warmly at Harry in welcome none the less. But Diana seemed to be the shy one, as she kept staring at Harry, and when he caught her eye, she looked down and started fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, muttered a barely audible hi. She was around Harry's age, about five years old by the looks of it. Harry smiled back at the three before asking them.

"_**How did you know my name?**_" He had a curious expression on his face.

"_**Your bags!**_" Sam stated matter-of-factly.

"_**My bags?**_" Harry asked confused.

"_**Yup! Your bag! Over there.**_" Tom replied nodding towards Harry's bag. Harry followed his roommates gaze and his eyes landed on the big bags lying beside his bed. His eyes widened in surprise.

"_**My bags?**_" He asked again, unbelieving. "_**I thought they were yours!**_" He added in a quite mumble, and moved towards the bags. Indeed his name had been stitched on each of the bags. One of the bags, which had clothes, also had a letter in it, which, he assumed, was from his doctor. He eyes the letter curiously, and as he couldn't read, took the letter over to his 'family'.

"_**Can one of you read it aloud for me? I…. I can't read! My aunt… she never taught me how…**_"

Harry trailed off, holding the letter out to the three. Sam had an unreadable expression on his face, which melted away in an instant, before Harry could notice, and when Harry looked at them with pleading expressions, giving them the best puppy-dog eyes he could, pouting, he smiled and nodded taking the letter from Harry. He glanced at Harry for an instant longer, thinking about something, as he noticed Harry's expression. It almost looked like he was hurting. He held out a Harry and when Harry grabbed it, pushed him up on the bed at seated him next to him. He then began reading the letter.

"_**Harry, **_

_**I am sorry I couldn't say a goodbye, but you were sleeping soundly and I didn't want to wake you up. I had been risking a lot, letting you travel around all day yesterday already. And thought you were tired, it would have been impossible for you to fall back asleep, what with the many stitches. **_

_**Well, take care child. Please take your medicines without forgetting, as you tend to do, and no running about for another two weeks, until I claim you fit to run about with the others. You are needed to contact me in case of even the slightest of pains. For drowning is nothing playful, and undergoing a surgery to remove water from your lungs while you are under a high fever, and chances of pneumonia, and you were suffocating to death too. We had to treat you in the most deathly circumstances possible, risking your life all the same. **_

_**I want you to come back for a check-up after a week. And the bags are all yours, and so is the stuff in them. Consider it a parting gift from me. And you should not be exerting too much stress on yourself in any way, mental or physical. Don't hesitate to contact us child. I promise to come and visit you often. We miss you Harry! **_

_**Your doctor.**_"

As soon as Sam completed reading the letter, Harry smacked his head muttering something that sounded so much like "_**I forgot! Again!**_" and he hopped off the bed and ran to his bed and extracted a small torn and tattered bag from under the pillow. He rummaged through it and removed a few medicines he was supposed to take. He took the cover of the medicines and the Doctor's prescription and went back to Sam asking him for help in reading it. Sam speechlessly took them from Harry and after reading the prescription, handed Harry three big capsules and then made him drink two tonics. Harry took them, grimacing at their awful taste, but did not complain otherwise.

Once Sam was sure Harry had taken his medicines, he lifted Harry and made him lay back on his bed. When Harry tried to protest against it, Sam shook his head and shushed Harry and tucked Harry in and made him go back to sleep. Harry groaned and glared, but obliged readily, only to wake an hour later, crying in pain. Diana, being the only one in the room rushed to Harry, holding him and crying out for Tom, Sam or any ward, as his brothers had insisted. Harry clung to her like she were a lifeline, crying upon her shoulder, and promptly fainted, and Diana, though horrified, lay him back on the bed carefully before darting out.

She returned minutes later, accompanied by her brothers, and the warden, to find Harry still knocked out on the bed. Sam rushed to him and seeing that Harry was sweating and also running a high fever, removed Harry's shirt, only to notice his bleeding stitches. He panicked and called up the doctor instantly with no second thought, and as the doctor advised them to, started cleaning Harry's body clean of the blood. After about half an hour, the doctor arrived.

He then assured them that it was nothing to worry about and that he had just stressed himself out by working and had lifted something heavy, hence stretching his stitches a lot. He assured them that he would be fine if kept away from doing heavy chores. He then gave another long lecture on care for Harry, and though the warden did not hear a word this time, Sam was sure to hear every single one of it to help his new brother. Harry woke after about an hour of the doctor's departure, and shocked everyone with his first meaningful sentence.

"_**I am sorry I slept away, I will prepare breakfast immediately.**_" And as he headed towards the door, he stopped and turned back to the frozen kids. "_**And what are my chores?**_" Harry asked only to be pushed back on the bed by Tom and Sam.

"_**Your only chore for a day or two would be to remain lying on your bed, sleepy or not!**_" Tom growled.

Sam merely smirked at Tom's anxious attitude, and stayed aside, knowing well that Tom was not to be disturbed or interrupted when he was in such a mood. Harry gave them an odd look, but obliged readily, for he was growing worn out again. So he lay back on the bed, and Diana went to the shelf and returned with a book of kids storied for Harry to see the pictures from if he got bored, exclaiming how it was her favorite book. Harry spent two days basking in the love and care of his roommates, though his happiness had to end on the third day.

When Harry felt up to roaming around the campus of the orphanage, he was cornered by a group of pranksters, and was often the target of their pranks. He ignored them, and after about a week, he was called upon by the warden who wanted to know if Harry was fine now. Upon Harry's assurance that he was perfectly fine, the warden handed Harry a long list of chores to be done, which included everything from cooking lunch to drawing water from the well to cleaning his corridor and the rooms on the corridor.

Harry was, however, helped by his "heart-brothers and heart-sisters" as they called them, through all these chores, and not one child ever left Harry alone in the care of the other children, whom Harry knew were the rudest ragbags, ruder than his uncle, Harry thought. He was often the target of their pranks, their punch bag, and their servant, and was also made to do their chores, was snatched of privileges, and was denied of any toys from the orphanage to play with. Had it not been for his own toys and his "family", Harry knew he would have been sulking.

Harry cherished the toys, clothes and the other stuff he received from his doctor. He saw him as a fatherly figure. The figure his uncle should have been. The figure his father, James Potter would have been. And hence, to make sure he never parted with his belongings he made sure to hide 'em whenever the room was empty, but he often forgot to. It was one such day. Though the room was not empty, Harry had vacated the room and left his belongings unguarded to have a refreshing bath, only to return ten minutes later to find the room in a mess.

He saw, from the corner of his eyes, Reggie, Kevin, Archie, Betz and Tess, the bully's of the orphanage, sneaking out of his room with identical evil smirks on their faces. He gave them his best glare he could, but they just smirked at him and went away. He sighed and got to the task of setting his room right. But after about half an hour he realized that his few clothes and MANY toys were missing. Or better yet, STOLEN. He swore under his breath and left his room stomping his feet as he headed towards Reggie's room. He was sure they were in his room, he was after all the leader of his "gang" He got in and glared daggers at them when he saw them wearing **his** brand new clothes and playing with his toys.

"_**Give 'em back!**_" He snarled, but they just stuck their tongues out at him.

"_**Finders, Keepers kiddo!**_" Reggie commented and his gang snickered at Harry. "_**Now clear the room of your presence or I shall do it!**_" He snarled.

Harry narrowed his eyes. He walked forward and snatched a few of his toys and clothes out of Reggie's hands. Reggie snapped his head up and his eyes connected with Harry's emerald green one's; which were strangely glowing due to suppressed anger. But the bullies, as always, ignored the warning in them, and Archie threw Harry back into the wall across the room. Harry's eyes widened as his stitches, which had not healed fully yet, started bleeding, but his eyes started glowing with rage once again, and a strange force surrounded Harry and filled the room.

Suddenly all the things in the room started floating in the air, and the bullies watched wide eyed. Somehow, the bullies were floating too, and the shirts were being removed from over their heads and floating too, and the toys left their hands. Soon, the heavy objects in the room, like the tables, vases, and such started floating to right in front of Harry, and before the kids knew what was happening, the things charged the gang, and hence hurt them in every place possible, though none were bleeding as severely as Harry was.

Everything in the room fell down, as Harry suddenly felt very weak. He however had his guard up and managed to lift himself off the ground. He advanced towards the bullies, but then, after a second thought, turned away from them, grabbed all his belongings, and exited the room to head to his own, and once he was in the safe custody of his own room, he collapsed on the floor, and that was how the warden found him minutes later. He sprinkled water on Harry's face to wake him up, and then smiled sadly down at him.

"_**I wish I could help you Harry, but before I can call your doctor, you have to meet the owner of the orphanage. The problem you have caused is no ordinary one, as Archie and his friends claim that you either have invisible hands or have befriended a ghost and that the ghost attacked them in your presence.**_" The warden spoke up, and by the expression he held, anyone could tell that he believed it was all rubbish and that he believed that the kids were crazy and had gone mad to claim something such. Harry simply nodded at him, and the warden helped him the orphanage owner's office. But as soon as Harry entered the room, his emerald green eyes widened in fear.

"_**You?**_"


	8. back again?

While Harry could at least hold himself up, once he saw who the owner of the orphanage was, he felt weak at the knees and collapsed into the warden holding him, and due to his blood lost, he grew dizzy, but he knew that he needed to stay awake and conscious in this confrontation if he had any hope to receive a treatment after it. He did not notice how his whole body shook violently, threatening to give up until he saw his hands trembling. He took a few deep breaths trying to collect himself, and then he blinked a few times to make sure the owner was indeed who he thought it was. But despite his desperate tries, when he saw the same face staring at him with hate written all over the face, he shivered.

"_**Aunt… Aunt Marge?**_" He choke out.

His aunt just glared at him, hate and anger written all over her face. She took a few threatening steps towards Harry, and Harry scrambled himself further into the warden still holding him up, and struggled to hold his senses to him. He stared into the brown orbs of his aunt, his uncle's sister. He could see the hate and anger brimming in those brown orbs and he shrunk back further. His aunt took a step towards Harry, and before Harry could contemplate what was going on, he felt a fist collide with his jaw, and a sickening crunch could be heard after that.

"_**You… You filthy little freak! Not only do you torture my brother but also almost drown and kill them, and then you have the audacity to show me your face. You have the audacity to step in my orphanage.**_" She spat at Harry, never bothering about the darkening of Harry's emerald green eyes, but once she spat at him for almost "killing" his uncle, Harry had enough, he snapped.

"_**I drowned them now, did I?**_" He asked in a deathly calm tone, his magic instantly surrounding him. When he saw an emotion of compressed rage flick in his aunt's eyes, Harry lost the little control he had over himself. All the items in the room started floating in the air. When he heard his aunt snarl, he took a threatening stem towards her. "_**I drowned them? Whereas I thought I was the one lying on a hospital bed. I drowned them and here I believed that they escaped and left me in the water to drown and die for all they care. I drowned them? I killed them?**__**THEY**_** KILLED **_**ME**_**!**" Harry spat at his aunt. More objects started floating around and over Harry, and suddenly they dropped to the ground. His aunt shivered for an instant, but seeing the items fall to the ground, she stepped towards Harry, eyes full of hatred and loathing.

"_**This freakiness of yours won't be tolerated here brat! You better learn to control yourself around here. If you have any self-consciousness, if you have any wish to live, if you have-**_"

Harry could hear his aunt snarling and growling at him. He struggled helplessly as his aunt spat. He felt weak all over and had the strange yet strong urge to close his eyes and sleep the day away. He struggled to keep his eyes open, but he was feeling very dizzy, and he could no longer concentrate on his aunt's words. He could hear the faint sound of his aunt shouting at him, but he could make no sense out of the words she was snarling. His eye sight was very blurry, and soon he gave up on his struggle, and darkness enveloped him, blocking every sound and light from his being.

Harry woke up later, after how long, he knew not. He tried to open his eyes, and squinted them shut as the bright light hit his eyes. He then slowly opened his eyes, as they adjusted to the light to find that he was still in the orphanage, still in his aunt's clutches. He looked around, and not too soon, his eyes locked with those of his eyes, and he could see not a trace of worry or anxiety in those brown eyes, and he shivered under her gaze before tearing his eyes away.

His eyes fell on his warden, who, he realized, never left his side, and his eyes are full of worry and concern for the little boy. The warden, Harry notices, was stroking his hair, until he catches Harry's eyes and his eyes brighten a bit. Harry only then notices that he has his head lying on the warden's lap. He smiles up at the warden, and then grimaces. His warden snaps to attention and looks down at him. Harry shakes his head and clutches his hand weakly, preventing him from getting up.

"_**Just weak… don't… Don't leave… pl… please…**_" Harry pleaded weakly. His warden looked at him worriedly, but then sighs in defeat and nods his head ever so slightly, that it was almost impossible for Harry to see it. But then, Harry felt someone grab him and throw him on the ground, away from the care of the warden. He whimpers.

"_**I am not done with you yet boy!**_" His aunt barked at him, then turned to glare at the warden for a moment before turning back to Harry.

"_**You don't get to get away with what you did; neither can you escape my wrath after shouting at me like that. I am not my brother to just hear you bark and let you go! I DO NOT have a soft corner for you, like my brother would have had. You are to do all the chores of all the kids in this orphanage for the entire year. And don't look at me like that, because I am sure I am stuck with you for a long time. Not that I blame the people! Who would want a freak like you as their ward?**_"

Harry snapped after that. Who does she think she is, telling me that I would be stuck with her for good? I would rather die, than face her, than face another hell. Harry felt his anger peak and accommodate the room completely. The warden looks around in confusion, as he felt an invisible force in the room. Harry looks at him and glances at the door once he gets his attention, demanding him to leave.

When he doesn't, Harry just pushes him out, and looks back inside in time to notice the ceiling cracking. He pushes his aunt in a corner of the room before he himself exits the room. He knew not what overcame him, but though his aunt was a beast, a demon, he did not wish her to die, at least not at his hands, and hence he somehow saves him, against his own will.

He then once more collapses in the warden's hands. The warden, who was not expecting it, for a second looks startled, but then acts quickly and picked up the child, who was still bleeding and walked off towards Harry's room. Once he was sure that Harry was lay comfortably on his bed, he leaves him for a few minutes to call the doctor before returning to remove Harry's clothes and cleaning him. Though worried, he does not give much thought to the fact that Harry had fainted twice in a day, and the fact that he, right now, showed no signs of regaining his consciousness.

When Harry awoke, he was somehow in his bed. He looks thankful for the fact that the warden had not left his side. In just a day, in the few hours, Harry had grown fond of this warden and was hoping that he would be around, that he would not have left him to suffer like his uncle would have, He smiled at the warden when he realized that he had cleaned him up and changed him too.

He lifts himself up slightly to hug the warden, but before he pulls back, he could feel someone yanking him away from the warden. He looks up to stare right into the bloody and dirty face of his aunt, who now was barely recognizable. He was about to shout at her again, but then as he sits up in an instant, he could feel weakness overtake him, and decides against him. He instead glares up at her.

"_**How dare you…**_" She growled at him and lifted her hand up to bring it down in a swift moment against his face to slap him. Harry, realizing that he was about to be slapped, realizing that he was about to be hurt again, closed his eyes tightly, tightening his hold on the warden's hand, he had not noticed he had been holding all this while. But his aunt's hand never contacts his cheek. He opens one eye to see that someone had held his aunt's hand, hence preventing her from slapping him.

"_**Don't you dare even think about hitting my child!**_" He growled. "_**How can you hit a child who is not only already bleeding to death, but also saved you life just a few minutes ago? And you claim to love children. Claim to own this orphanage. I will not bear seeing my child being treated like this ever again! Am I understood? Now get out! NOW!**_"

He growled at her. He then looked back at Harry and his gaze softened, and there were now tears in his eyes. He looked at the warden gratefully, before indicating to Marge, who still stood there, in shock and anger. The warden smirked and advanced at her. Harry breaks into a fit of painful laughter as he watched the warden kick his aunt, Aunt Marge, out of his room. He then nods to the doctor in courtesy before exiting the room. Harry chose that particular moment to lose consciousness again and give in to his weakness.

The doctor removed Harry's shirt and cursed under his breath when he saw that Harry had lost a lot of blood. He then swears colourfully when he notices that Harry had not only lost his blood, but also exhausted almost all of some force that he seemed to possess. He had only treated such children a few times, and had always had to administer a few tonics to them which were given to him every month by strangely dressed men or women. He found it weird how they wore long robes. He took out the tonics and noting that Harry was unconscious, and needed to remain so for the rest of the treatment, injected it into his body.

After he could see Harry's pale body regain some of its colour, he was assured that the tonics, whatever they were, were working. He then cleaned the stitches once again, that had opened due to immense pressure upon them with some antiseptic liquid, before stitching them once again. He then applied some antiseptic creams and some other ointments on the stitches to make sure that they do not hurt, and are less likely to open and bleed again. He then, for better caution, wrapped him up in bandages to make sure they wouldn't open.

He then leaves the room, hands the warden a paper that contains the tonics and tablets Harry is required to take, hands him few more tonics that he had injected in Harry instructing him to make Harry drink them after every meal for a week, and then to bring him back to the hospital for a checkup. He requests him to call him if Harry falls sick or is hurt again. He then takes his leave and returns to the hospital to care for the other patients leaving Harry, his child, in the care of the demon. His child. He liked how it sounded.

However, when Harry woke up, he was made to do all the work, as his aunt had promised, and the other kids were forbidden from helping him when Sam, Tom and Diana tried to help him. Harry knew not to complain and carried on with his chores, and it had been a month since Harry had been working. At times, Tom, Sam or Diana would sneak out to help him, but they could not do it often. And hence, Harry got used to endless working, and his aunt's abuses, and was now sure that he was indeed hated by everyone.

**Meanwhile:**

I wander around muggle Seattle to get myself away from my death eaters for a short time. I hate to have to come to muggle places, but I can't risk being seen by the wizards of the light side just yet. They need the surprise factor. I need to overtake the ministry and St. Mungo's before I, Lord Voldemort, can show himself. It would easier for me to overtake them when they are unaware of my return. The death eaters have been doing a satisfying job. Almost the whole ministry was now under my control, and so was St. Mungo's.

The werewolves and the giants were still on our side, but the vampires' heads, the Volturi had asked for a meeting with me. It was not something to be surprised of anyway. They knew nothing about the wizarding world, and hence thought that no human knew about their existence. But it was still something to worry about, as our wands and magical abilities would be proved useless against them, for their skin is as hard as a rock. Hence if they decide to kill or change him because he knows their little secret, he would be helpless.

It was these thoughts that had driven him away from the confines of his manor. He needed to get away from everything for a while. To just chill and think about it without the chaos around him; unlike in the presence of the death eaters. He needed peace, which he never got at the Riddle Manor, because of the non-stop bickering of his death eaters. Not that he blamed them, who wouldn't want to be named his apprentice and go on to impress him to be named further as his heir? Who wouldn't want his wealth?

He wandered the muggle town, when he suddenly came across an orphanage, with a child sweeping the ground and cleaning the place, while a few kids bullied him, and some other children just played happily, giving no thought to this child. This child strangely reminded him of his own childhood, and that made up his mind. He entered the orphanage, and returned about an hour of bargaining and threatening later, with the child who was now carrying three big bags and had a wide goofy grin across his face.


	9. trapped

The next morning Harry awoke to a knock on the room door and the yell of a voice asking him to wake up and get down within an hour. Harry hurried, got dressed and ran to meet his new guardian, only to bump right into a tall greasy haired, bat-like looking man. Harry scrambled back.

"_**Kid, we have last places to go that should keep you busy the whole day today. We have some shopping to do. After that, you have a short meeting with your guardian. Now come along!**_"

"_**Yes sir!**_" Harry responded and began walking with the man.

"_**The name's Snape.**_" He snapped. Harry simply nodded, already not liking this man.

Harry then followed Snape into the dining room and sat at the table to have breakfast. After about an hour, Harry found himself holding on to Snape tightly as he vanished them away into an alley Harry had never heard of before. They walked into the alley for some time, and Harry saw every kind of strange shops there, before turning into a dark alley, Knockturn Alley.

The first place the pair stopped at was a rare or illegal pet shop called, 'Darien's Rarions.' Harry walked in wide eyed at all the rare animals before him; it was beyond amazing in every way possible.

"_**Hey, kid what'd you want, this ain't a place for punks you know.**_" The owner of the shop snapped at Harry.

"_**He has a guardian with him; we are looking for two things, one a pet that he sets eyes upon, and two, a house elf unbound to a family**_." Snape pronounced.

"_**Well let's start with the house elf you are in need of.**_" Darien, the owner of the shop responded.

He led them to the back of the shop then turned to the two, "_**What kind of house elf are you looking for?**_"

"_**Any gender would do, must be young but old enough to know the basics of caring for a wizard.**_"

Darien nodded, "_**Ancilla! Here now!**_"

Before them popped in a house elf that looked up and recognized the scar on Harry's forehead causing her to pretty much worship the boy.

"_**How about this one?**_"

Darien ignored the fact that they were worshiping a child in his presence, when they were still his. Snape looked the elf over scrutinizing her in every way possible making sure there was nothing wrong with her. He finally nodded when he seemed pretty pleased of the elf.

"_**Yes we will take her.**_"

"_**Good! Now sir if you'll hold out your hand, I will take a drop of blood and bind her to you. Just so you know she costs 500 galleons.**_"

"_**The price works however don't bind her to me. She is to be bound to the child.**_" Snape told him.

"_**Oh, well then, child, hold out your hand,**_"

Harry held out his hand with his eyes closed tightly, afraid of what was about to happen. He felt a small prick then the blood dropped into a potion which then had the two elves blood added in. The potion made a small pop and blood red smoke rose from it. Next the potion was poured into three cups and all three of them had to drink it. Harry drank it with a disgusted look on his face while the two elves drank it happily knowing they were now bound to young Harry. Harry then handed over 500 galleons to the older man.

"_**Have your elf go to your room in Riddle Manor kid, they are to pack up your clothes and take them over to my house. You will know the reasons later from your guardian.**_" Snape told Harry knowing that he couldn't order the elves around, only Harry could.

Harry didn't exactly like Snape's idea and decided to change it to a more logical one, "_**Ancilla I want you to go to my room in Riddle manor, pack me up, then head to his house with the stuff, put it in the guest bedroom and then you can rest until we return.**_"

The elf nodded and squeaked out, "_**Yes Master!**_" She popped and left to complete her assigned duty. Harry just looked at her in disbelief as she just disappeared. He had still not got used to the fact that Snape could do that, and here he was, watching a small creature do the same. He was glad at least the creature spoke his own language, and he assumed her to be normal, despite her appearance, though he was freaked out when she started worshiping him.

Snape then turned to the owner again. "_**Now for the pet, let me see all your Snakes!**_" He demanded

As they walked through the snake section something spoke to Harry, "_**Boy, come here boy, yes you, I cannot explain it, however you seem familiar to me. I am Seberus.**_" Harry walked over to the voice and found it to be a small snake. Once Harry was closer to the snake, it spoke again. "_**Are you looking for a pet, speaker?**_"

"_**Yes, as a matter of fact I am.**_" Harry replied, wondering how on hell the snake was conversing with him in English. He then hesitated before asking, "_**May I ask what you are?**_"

"_**I am a boa constrictor. I believe we could make a good master and pet. If you will take me as your pet, that is.**_"

Harry nodded, "_**Sure!**_" He squeaked in excitement. Never did he imagine he would have a pet of his own, much less a talking snake.

"_**Would you take me as your familiar?**_" The snake asked again.

"_**A what?**_"

"_**A familiar.**_" Upon seeing the look of confusion on Harry's face, the snake explained. "_**A familiar is a pet bound to you for life.**_" Though, Harry was still confused about that, and hence settled to just having it as a pet, assuring it that he would think about it later. The snake dipped its head in understanding.

"_**Mr. Snape, I found my pet.**_" Harry said walking over to Snape.

"_**Which one boy?**_"

"_**The small black snake who spoke to me, Seberus.**_"

Snape looked the snake over, "_**Him? Are you sure? I was hoping for something more competitive.**_"

The snake took it as an insult and lunged at Snape, but was stopped by Harry holding it back to him by its tail. "_**Ok ok! You can have it.**_" After a moment's thought, he commented. "_**It's got quite a temper. The dark lord would be impressed.**_"

"_**How much for him, sir?**_" Harry asked the owner.

"_**I wish this wasn't true however, if the snake considers you his master already and wishes to become your familiar, I cannot charge you for him in anyway, for he is no longer bound to me. Though I wonder how it happened when I never released it. He is yours my boy.**_"

"_Oh, then you may buy yourself a bird too__._" Snape commented. He then turned to Darien and motioned him forward. The man nodded before walking in to the birds section. But Harry preferred a simple one, and hence they got into Diagon Alley once again. They got into _Eeylops Owl Emporium. _As Harry entered the shop, his eyes immediately fell on a snowy owl, and the selection was made, and Harry named it Hedwig. He was about to turn when a phoenix flew out of its cage and perched upon Harry's shoulder a bright light filled the shop. The shopkeeper came rushing in with a shocked and awed expression. He smiled warmly at Harry when he saw the bird perched upon his shoulder, disbelief in his eyes.

"_**The bird has bonded to you. You must be a great wizard of the light side to have impressed a phoenix.**_" The shopkeeper commented. Harry, not understanding a word, simply smiled. Snape's eyes grew wide the size of saucers.

"_**Kid, you need to command the bird to my manor and never step a feet on Riddle Manor.**_" He spoke with a horrified expression upon his face. Harry simply nodded, and did as he was asked to. Snape let out a breath of relief. He then turned back to Harry.

"_**Ok, we need to floo back to the Riddle manor from the Leaky Cauldron.**_"

"_**Flu?**_" Harry asked confused. "_**I don't want a cold, sir.**_"

"_**Not a flu, floo. Oh just come with me and do as I do when we get to the fire place.**_" Snape said exasperated already. Harry was welcomed by his guardian and they had lunch, then he led Harry into a room to have a small talk.

"_**Harry, I hope you have met Severus Snape already. You will have to spend some time with him at his manor until he trains you. I cannot have you here without any training.**_" When Harry looked like he was going to argue, Voldemort cut him off. "_**I DID NOT ASK FOR YOUR OPINION ON THIS! I DO NOT want any arguments on this topic. You ARE leaving with Severus now, AND THAT IS DECIDED!**_" He shouted at him. He then left the room, leaving Harry in tears. Harry got up and followed his guardian out in front of Severus and they flooed to Snape Manor. Soon they were sitting on the dining table having their dinner in silence, as Harry continued to cry, until Snape spoke up.

"_**Now kid you will stay here for a month or two before you go back to Riddle Manor, due to this, we have no time to waste. I have many things to teach you in such a short period of time. I have been asked to train you on how to defend yourself. And STOP CRYING BOY!**_" He snapped.

Harry only nodded to show he was listening whilst eating his dinner.

"_**So tomorrow be up at 6:00 in the morning for a good breakfast before training. After that you shall train till noon and then have a good lunch. Then you will train till 6:00 PM and have dinner. After that I want you to meditate till 8:00 PM when you will go to bed. Tomorrow I shall tell you why you are learning meditation and what it shall eventually help you with. Tomorrow marks the day for 'Step One,' in your training. Be ready! Call your elf quickly Harry and inform her that till you are here, she are to obey my commands as much as they would yours.**_"

"_**Ancilla!**_" Harry called having already learned a bit about elves after reaching Snape manor.

"_**Yes master, you called?**_"

"_**I want you two until I am here to do anything Mr. Snape asks of you.**_"

"_**Yes sir!**_"

"_**Good, Now Harry, bed!**_"

Harry ran off to bed to get a good night sleep before his first day of excruciating training. The next morning Harry awoke promptly at 6:00 AM to a loud buzzing noise alerting him to the time. He hopped out of bed and dressed as quickly as he could so that he would be able to eat a hearty breakfast before his sure to be vigorous training. Soon he was ready and seated on the dining table having his breakfast.

"_**Now Harry, since you have all of your items, it is time you truly begin your training. I know you will hate this but for the next month we will train you till you nearly collapse, however by the time we are done, you will be the most powerful and well trained wizard of your time. I will only be teaching you transfiguration, defensive and offensive charms, runes, potions, and dangerous magical creatures. We will also be working on occlumency.**_" On seeing Harry's confused expression, he explained. "_**It's just the practice of shielding your mind from intruders. We would start training tomorrow. Today is the only day I shall give you for freedom so do as you please.**_"

Harry nodded "_**Ok Mr. Snape**_" He then ran off to go play with all his stuff as well as read the most fascinating books he had found in Snape's library the previous day. The tiring training began the next day, along with a list of chores for Harry to complete before he headed to bed. Voldemort attended Harry's training often, to see how he was performing. And hence, Harry was practically made slave, as Snape proved to be a difficult teacher, and for each mistake, Harry received a smacking with a spoon, and a times worse, if Snape, or sometimes Lord Voldemort, was in a bad mood. Harry knew that he was stuck with Snape for the entire month before he could be free from his abusing tutor. How wrong he was.


	10. saved

A month later, Harry was getting ready to return to Riddle Manor, to his guardian, to Voldemort. Harry had his elf, Ancilla, pack him up, and his belongings were now already in his room in the Riddle Manor. Harry looked at himself one last time, and sighed. Though he hated it, Snape had placed a few glamours on him as soon as he had discovered the scar on Harry's head. Now Harry found it weird to look at himself without a scar, though he had been warned to never speak of it in front of his guardian. Harry now had sea blue eyes. If looked him into the eyes, one would find himself trapped within his captivating gaze.

Harry blinked a few times before letting go of his thoughts. He was at least happy that he would no longer have to bear the torture of his tutor, for Snape only got tougher in nature each day. He was only four, for speaking out loud. But Harry had no way to escape the Bat-like mans abuse. He had to undergo it, and when he was told that he had to pack up, for his training was over and he had to return to the Riddle Manor, he had squealed, like the child he was, and ran upstairs to his room to get himself ready.

He was now standing at the fireplace, waiting for his tutor, Severus Snape so that he could floo away to the Riddle Manor. He could wait no longer to finally meet his guardian after an entire month. For though he did arrive many times during Harry's lessons, he never spoke to Harry, and if he got angry with his performance, he would shout at him, give him his punishment, and leave. They never had a conversation. Harry wanted to know how his guardian's character was, for he absolutely loathed Snape by now, after just a month.

As soon as Severus entered the room, Harry grabbed a handful of floo powder, threw it into the fireplace, stepped inside it, yelled "_**Riddle Manor**_" clearly, before swirling away to the manor and disappearing away from Snape Manor. Snape shook his head at Harry's impatience, threw him a pitiful look, for he knew he had worse to face yet, commanded Hedwig to fly away to Riddle Manor, and disappearing himself in the fire, appearing a moment later at Riddle Manor.

He saw Harry seated in a chair, stomping his feet impatiently, as he waited for him to meet his guardian. Snape shrugged, looked Harry over once, tested Harry's occluding abilities, asking Harry to shield all memories about the glamours he placed, about his real name other than his middle name, his parentage, and his past and to remember himself by the name James Riddle. Once he was satisfied by the boy's performance, he leaded him around the Manor and towards the dark lord's office.

Once Harry had reached the door to the dark lord's study, where he was planning at the present moment, he grew nervous, and clutched the only thing he could reach, Snape's hand, tightly, having no idea what to expect. Snape simply stiffened at the sudden contact, looked down to see the boy pale, smiled wryly when he caught him looking at him, and motioned him forward. Harry nodded.

Harry gulped before turning the handle and entering the room. As soon as he did, Voldemort's eyes snapped up to meet Harry's sea blue one's.

"_**Umm… hu… hi?**_" Harry stuttered, not sure what to say, and what not to tell, knowing full well about his guardians temper.

Voldemort simply sneered when he caught him stuttering. "_**Your training got over?**_" He simply asked as he turned back to his work.

"_**Yes sir!**_" Harry exclaimed, a bit proudly. The dark lord chuckled as he noticed the proudness in Harry's voice, and dismissed them, not once looking up from his papers. Harry looked a bit discouraged, but left anyway. Harry went over to the kitchen and ordered a light late lunch for him, for he had skipped his lunch in excitement, and now that he was disappointed, he did not feel like he could eat anything.

Harry sat down at the dining table and started eating all by himself. Snape, seeing this, came and sat next to Harry. Harry did not notice this; neither did he notice Snape reach out to him. So when Snape touched Harry's shoulder, Harry jumped, immediately taking a defensive position, and bringing out the spare wand Snape had given him for practice and use until the dark lord bought him one of his own.

"_**Hey!**_" Snape said tentatively.

Upon seeing Snape, Harry lowered his wand, but still did not relax. Seeing Snape smile at him however did the work, Harry instantly relaxed, and about an hour later, Harry could be found crying into Snape's chest, as Severus simply held him awkwardly, having never learned about a child, much less, how to comfort one. After a few minutes, Snape looked down at Harry to find him fast asleep in his arms. Snape sighed and carried him to his room.

The next morning, Harry woke up to the feeling of someone shaking him vigorously, and he immediately looked around the room, to find many masked men standing in the room, and a masked one was shaking him, while another was holding a set of robes and a mask. Harry blinked and then stared at them with a strange expression. He did not know who they were, and seeing them all in masks, Harry thought, was funny, and hence was trying hard not to end up laughing. Seeing that Harry had opened his eyes, the man sighed.

"_**Finally! Get up boy and put on these robes and the mask.**_" The other man handed him the robes, and Harry stared at them wryly. "_**This is going to be your first experience at raiding shops and such activities! Be down for breakfast in about fifteen minutes. After breakfast, we leave to raid Diagon Alley.**_"

Harry simply nodded, with eyes wide, and jaw dropped. He got into the bathroom hurriedly, not wishing to be late and disappoint his guardian. He returned fully dressed ten minutes later. He combed his hair, put on the mask and other such activities, before rushing downstairs.

He sat at the chair to the right of the dark lord, his guardian, and smiled up at his guardian, who simply nodded at him, before starting breakfast for the day. To say that Harry was worried as the understatement of the year, for he was worried and nervous and scared. He did know many offensive spells, including the unforgivable ones, but he never thought he would have to use them to thieve and raid shops, never mind so soon.

Once breakfast was over, Harry left with the other still masked men. He caught the hand of one of the men tightly as they apparated him away right after the others to the alley. Harry looked around and felt pity for the people there, as their eyes widened upon seeing the masked men there, and started running everywhere, in an attempt to save their lives and sanity. Harry entered the first shop he came across with a group of five other masked men behind him. As he walked in, he found it to be a small café.

The owner of the café looked up, and her eyes widened in fear. Harry stood there helpless as the three death eaters advanced into the shop, cursing everyone they came across. Harry felt sick, but he pushed the feeling deep down, and motioned the other two death eaters after him, as he exited the shop, having seen that the other three had control over the situation. He walked into the next shop, which happened to be a wand shop, though not Ollivander's.

Harry entered, cast a single curse and walked out of the shop to join the other two and looked at the shop just in time to see it blast to pieces, and bodies flew everywhere. Harry cast the same curse in many other shops, and once he was satisfied that the alley had been damaged enough for a single day, he returned to the manor, leaving the others to finish the other shops.

Once he was inside the safe confines of the walls of his room, he chanted a few spells warding his room, before rushing to the bathroom. He fell sick and puked into the toilet. He rinsed his mouth thoroughly, chanted a cleansing charm on himself, to clean his clothes, cast a mouth freshening spell on himself too, and flushed the toilet too, before walking out to his room. He lowered his wards and lay on the bed, falling asleep in an instant.

About an hour later, Luscious Malfoy returned with reports. He stated how the raid had been a success, and had described his ward's behavior and actions to the dark lord, though he was careful with each word he said. The dark lord seemed impressed that his ward had thought about using a simply blasting curse to destroy, by just putting in a bit more strength in it to blast a shop, than fighting like his death eaters.

However he was enraged when Luscious informed that he had not taken part in the entire attack and had returned earlier. He was even angrier that Harry had not reported to him himself. He stormed away to Harry's room to find him sleeping peacefully, but Harry was startled when he heard his guardian stomp into the room. He looked up to find his guardian glaring at him, and he gulped, instantly imagining the worst.

"_**What do you think you are doing?**_" He roared at Harry.

"_**Huh? Am sleeping?**_" Harry replied, looking confused, and earned himself a slap.

"_**I meant what had you busy enough that you couldn't stay there to complete the raid? What was so important that you had to leave in the middle of the raid and not even report to me?**_" He snapped.

"_**I thought your death eaters,**_" He gestured to Luscious "_**were powerful enough to take on a few shops by themselves. I did not know they needed the aid of a four year old!**_" He now gestured to himself, causing Luscious to grow red as a tomato in the face. However, to his surprise, Voldemort started laughing.

"_**You need to control that tongue of yours brat! It may not help you someday.**_" This time, he was fingering his own wand, looking at Harry pointedly. Harry simply gave a mischievous smile.

"_**I know just the thing that would help me if not my tongue…**_" He trailed off smirking at the dark lord who raised his eyebrows.

"_**And what, may I ask, would that be?**_" He asked.

"_**This!**_" Harry replied simply as he stepped forward and when he was exactly in front of the dark lord, he smirked at him before stepping in between the dark lord's legs and running away, laughing as he did so. The dark lord simply looked shocked by the child's antics. He growled as he ran after the child, as Luscious watched amused.

But though Harry had his own happy moments, the dark lord's anger was still something to look out for. Harry had faced it many a times after returning to the manor, and he was yet to get used to it, or the Dark Lords sharp tongue, which was, ironically, sharper than that of Snape's. Harry could often be found crying in his quarters in the night, after facing the wrath of the dark lord for doing something stupid.

And though he had been trained to stage basic raids, that were not too challenging, and to defend himself from the dark lord, he was still training, this time with the dark lord, in the field of dark arts. The only dark spell known to Harry had been the three unforgivable, the others, though harmful, were not dark. Harry had to learn dark curses and spells like "_Expulso_", or the _Fiendfyre_ curse, the _Sectumsempra_ curse, and other similar and more curses. After every training session, Harry felt sick in the stomach, and would end up puking whenever he was alone.

Also, Voldemort had been rather impressed by Harry's simple technique of completing tasks that he was made to participate in every raid hence forth, and was also forced as the death eaters kidnapped, enslaved, abused or raped the muggles and muggleborn people. Harry hated it, but had to go through the experience was watching it happen helplessly almost every day, after every raid the death eaters staged, and rarely the dark lord joined himself.

Harry thought that he was better off with the muggles, with his uncle and aunt, be as abusing as they may be. He knew they were not as evil as his present guardian, Voldemort, whom called himself a dark lord and was feared by everyone. Harry hated being feared by others, unless they had done something to harm him, which none of them had. He had lost all hopes on living a normal life. He knew it was hopeless even thinking about anything such happening. But he thought too soon.

For one such day, he was proven wrong. He was in a muggle town, holding yet another raid. He had stopped in the corner of the street, his eyes closed, as he tried to block the shouts of the muggle men as they were being captured, and those of the muggle girls and women, as they were being abused, enslaved or raped. It was then that he felt a hand wrap around his waist and another closing on his mouth, preventing him from shouting out. Before he could catch his voice back, he was miles away from his death eaters. He had been kidnapped in a town full of people and no one noticed, and he was glad, if he could say so himself. He simply clung to whoever was carrying him.


	11. celebrity craze

Harry felt himself being grabbed from behind and before he could get a grasp of what was going on, he found himself being carried away from the alley which was raided, and he was glad, if he could say so himself. Without further thought about the person, other than that he had just saved him from a fate, a life he would have hated later, he put all his trust into him, and noting by the way the trees, houses and roads were flying in the sides, he could say they were running, and Harry , by the fear of falling off, clung to the person carrying him, and turning a bit in their grasp, hid his face in their chest, never trying to look at the face of the person.

Then, the person suddenly slowed down, and Harry could feel the winds blow on his face as he turned to take in his surroundings. As soon as he saw that they were somewhere far away from where they were previously, and the place seemed to be scarce of people, he let out the breath he had been holding all this while. But suddenly, he felt the person stop and himself placed down on the ground. He turned around only to find himself standing all alone in the unknown area.

He started walking backwards, looking around helplessly, at the verge of breaking down, when he ran into someone. He turned around to find a man holding an oxygen mask to him. He looked at the mask curiously, and could not help the confusion he felt, that was not showing openly on his face. He then looked at the man, taking in his appearance. He had honey blond hair, and gold eyes. He had pale skin and was about 6 inches. He looked at the man questioningly, nodding at the oxygen mask.

"_**You would need to wear this, so I can continue on the journey. Everything will be explained to you once we reach my house.**_" And with that he handed Harry the mask, who put it on without further questions, though he was still confused. Without another word, Harry's "kidnapper" lifted him one's more and started running again. Harry watched as the trees and houses flew by. Harry chanced a look at the man who was carrying him, and noticed that the man was strangely not breathing.

Harry felt his mind start racing trying to figure out what the reasons could be for the same. He considered that maybe the man had some serious illness, and hence could not breathe by his nose. As soon as the thought had occurred to him, he dismissed it off. He considered many such thoughts like that of his kidnapper being a robot, or a ghost, and dismissed those thoughts just as soon as they occurred to him, and soon he gave up, as he had the most ridiculous thoughts as he tried to figure it out. He soon grew tired, and before he even knew it, he fell asleep in his kidnapper's arms.

Harry woke up when he felt him being shifted, and opened his eyes to stare into the gold eyes of the man, which had grown a bit darker than he had seen them before. He wondered why the man needed to paint his eyes darker, he looked handsome the way he was. He considered asking him, but then decided against it, as he hardly knew about him. Instead he simply looked into the eyes of his kidnapper and raised his eyebrows expectantly. The man noted that Harry was far too intelligent and smart for his age, but he did not comment anything about it yet.

"_**I need to take care of a few activities. You will have to stay at a hotel till I return with one of my friends.**_" He said to Harry in a whisper, so as to not scare the child away. By the way Harry had clung to him earlier, when he barely knows him, he was sure that he was scared.__"_**I won't be long.**_" He added upon seeing Harry stiffen and his eyes widen in fear. He knew it was going to prove hard to have the child regain his confidence in himself… and in others. He sighed as he held out his hand to Harry, who took it doubtfully, and they headed towards a hotel.

Upon entering the hotel, the man left Harry to sit on a chair in the waiting room as he spoke to the manager in a rush in some language that Harry was sure was not English. He frowned when he could not understand even a single word uttered by the two. The man returned after what seemed like a successful argument after about fifteen minutes. He held out his hand to Harry and Harry one again grabbed it and started walking off into the corridors with the man.

They walked through many corridors in the hotel which looked like a grand palace, before they finally stopped in front of a door. Harry stood as the man knocked the door and waited for its occupant to open the door and let us in. Harry eyes widened and jaw dropped as he saw who exactly the kidnapper's friend was. There he was standing face to face with a teenage singer who was quite famous in England and over other parts of the world too.

"_**Hey Justin! Mind if I have you babysit this four year old for an hour or two? I really need to take care of a few activities and he has been through a lot that I simply can't leave him alone, n he is too young that I can't take him with me.**_" Harry simply watched wide eyed as they conversed and as Justin grabbed his hand and took him in with a smile.

Harry grinned widely when he finally got over the fact that he was seated in the same room as the singer, that the said singer was Dudley's favourite that said singer was actually his babysitter, and that he would be spending over an hour with him. Justin looked over at him and shook his head at the wide grin Harry had pasted on his face and smiled at him. Much to his amusement, Harry's grin only widened, if it were even possible. He then suddenly cursed colourfully when he heard a knock on his door. Harry looked at him with wide eyes filled with worry and fear. Justin shook his head immediately seeing the fear.

"_**It so happens that I have a concert scheduled for after fifteen minutes, and as you can say, I most definitely can't leave you here alone, and neither can I miss my concert. I have to take you with me. I would be lucky if I remain alive tomorrow after he knows that I took you with me.**_" He stated. Harry's eyes widened even more, but this time all the worry and fear was replaced with happiness and excitement. He smiled, amused at the child's behavior and reaction. He then realized that he did not know said child's name.

"_**Um... What is your… Um… Name?**_" He asked awkwardly. Harry simply shook his head.

"_**Harry! Harry potter's the name sir.**_" He replied, as he slipped into a formal tone. Justin raised his eyebrows at Harry, but did not comment.

"_**Well, Harry, would you mind if I took you along with me?**_" He asked him.

Harry stared at him, as if he had lost his head and was insane. He blinked and slowly shook his head.

"_**Are you kidding me? I would be honored to accompany you to your concert… though I warn you; people wouldn't get to hear you today.**_" He said the last part with a smirk, and Justin raised an eyebrow before shrugging it off and holding out his hand to Harry with a smile. Harry took it gladly, giving Justin a small smile of his own. Justin wrote a quick letter for Harry's "kidnapper" to find on the table before leaving with Harry.

Harry soon found himself standing on the street trying to make his way to the car with Justin through the crowd of Justin's admirers. Harry sighed. He may be a fan too, but this was ridiculous. He finally managed to get through the crowd and into the car, thanks to his small figure. He looked at Justin, who was now standing outside the car, trying to shake off the crowd of fans. When Justin finally made it in, he sat down and gave a sigh of relief and let out the breath he had been holding, which led to Harry losing his control and burst out laughing. Justin glared at him, but then let a small smile grace his lips as they rode off.

Harry got off the car, hands held tightly on to Justin's hand, who gave him a reassuring smile after hearing a continuous ranting from the kid for about the entire journey about getting lost in the crowd of people. They made their way in to the room at the back of the stage through the crowd that had gathered once more, so that Justin could change into his outfit for the concert. Harry too found an outfit that fit him and put it on with a smile. Justin stood up and held out his hand for Harry. Harry took it and walked on to the stage.

Harry was standing in front of the stage and was joined by Justin a moment later, which caused the crowd to burst into cheers, and the girls were drooling over Justin. Harry just rolled his eyes. After spending the better part of almost thirty minutes with Justin, he had gotten used to the celebrity, and was no longer star struck. Justin gave Harry a reassuring smile, fearing that he would be scared out of his wits by the crowd that had gathered for the concert. But Harry seemed to look very impatient. Justin simply smiled at him.

"_**Hey everyone!**_" Justin shouted into the microphone. Harry laughed at the response. "_**I am here to give you yet another day of music! So I would like you to sit back, relax and let me bring you a good time**_" There were cheers again before the intro to the first song started up. Harry looked around at the crowd amazed by their response. The song ended and the cheers rung throughout the hall. The Justin grinned at Harry before turning to the crowd. Harry just smirked.

"_**That was great everyone!**_" Justin yelled in the microphone. The response from the crowd was deafening, and Justin began with his next song. Though, as he was halfway through the song; Harry joined in, singing along with Justin, causing everyone's attention to snap to him. He smirked as he continued.

"_I never thought that I could feel this power_

_I never thought that I could feel this free_

_I'm strong enough to climb the highest tower_

_And I'm fast enough to run across the sea_

_Cuz there's just no turning back_

_When your heart's under attack_

_Gonna give everything I have_

_Cuz this is my destiny_

_I will never say never (I will fight)_

_I will fight till forever (make it right)_

_Whenever you knock me down_

_I will not stay on the ground_

_Pick it up, pick it up_

_Pick it up, pick it up (up up up...)_

_And never say never!_"

Justin just stared at Harry as he sang on with wide eyes. He had no idea that he could sing, never mind about the guts to sing in front of a whole audience. He could feel the words leave him as Harry sang on, oblivious to at having caught the attention of the entire crowd. It was quite a sight seeing Justin with his jaw dropped, staring wide-eyes at the child singing his song. Harry's childish voice singing the voice seemed like honey to his ear… it was sweet to hear a child sing, no matter which song.

Once Harry completed the song, He turned to Justin with a wide grin. Justin simply shook his head in amusement at the kid. He now understood what Harry actually meant back at the hotel. He smiled at Harry, who was looking at the applauding crowd in shock. He wondered if Harry was shocked to see the crowd applauding so loudly for them, for he was sure it would have been expected. He turned back to the microphone.

"_**Give it up for Harry Potter! That was amazing! But I have to apologize; this marks the end of the concert.**_"

The response was immediate, as the crowd grew glum upon hearing the announcement. He then turned to Harry and held out his hand. Harry took it with a smile and they walked off back stage and back to their room. They changed quickly and got back to the car, relatively quick this time, thanks to the police who had gathered outside. Once in the car, they drew off in silence for several minutes, before Harry turned to Justin with an apologetic smile.

"_**Sorry about that! I just can't stop myself when I hear someone singing, I somehow join them, no matter who, no matter where.**_" He apologized. Justin simply shook his head and gave him a wide smile.

"_**That was awesome Harry, I couldn't have hoped for anything better.**_"

Harry gave a wide smile at the comment, and they launched into conversation until they finally reached the hotel. As soon as Harry entered Justin's room, he was pounced upon by his "kidnapper" who was all worked up. Harry noticed his eyes were glowing golden again, but chose not to comment. Harry had a hard time assuring his "kidnapper" that he was fine, before he finally calmed down, but not before giving them a piece of his mind. Harry and Justin had grimaced at his outburst.

Harry soon found him in his "kidnapper", who had introduced himself as Jasper's hands as Jasper ran towards, Harry assumed, his new home. Harry sighed. He was tired of being transferred from place to place so frequently. He already missed his "family", who he hoped were not still at the orphanage. He hoped to meet them soon. He also missed his doctor, but he could only wish to meet him again too.

Harry soon fell asleep with these thoughts running through his mind. He however awoke when Jasper came to a halt and his eyes stared up at the beautiful house. He glanced around and his eyes landed on a familiar figure. He smiled and launched himself at his dog and parrot. He was glad to see them fine and held them close to him, as the dog licked his face. He was now sure he was going to finally have happiness return in his life.


	12. insecurities

Harry could almost feel his fate changing, and this time, he believed it was for the good. He stroked the dog which kept licking him, and was soon surrounded by many other dogs. He felt something perch on his shoulder and saw the parrot, his parrot, perched on top of his shoulder. He smiled at it. He felt blissful at the moment. He had never been happier, except maybe when his parents were alive, but ever since, this was the first time he had been this happy. He looked at the house, taking in the surroundings in which, he imagined, he would be living, when his eyes landed on Carlisle.

Though Harry did not know the doctor by his name, he had a great memory, and he remembered that this was the guy who had offered him and his only friends' treatment, who had taken care of his friends and not abandoned them in his absence. His mouth lifted in a smile as he ran over and hugged the man. He could hear the others hold their breath as the elderly man hugged him back with a smile of his own.

"_**Thank you!**_" Harry muttered many times into the man's clothes, and soon had the clothes soaking wet due to tears he did not realize he was shedding. The elderly man simply wiped of his tears and smiled at him.

"_**Am I allowed to ask your name child?**_" He asked calmly, keeping in mind that the child was still very insecure.

Harry smiled at him, but then he frowned. "_**Which one?**_" He asked, and the members all blinked.

"_**What do you mean kid?**_" The man asked, and they could see Harry stiffen at the memory as he replied.

"_**My tutor gave me a new name, and told me I was never to utter my real name to my guardian. He said that it was dangerous.**_" Harry shuddered again. The man simply held on to Harry as he tried to calm him.

"_**Tell me your name kid, not some name your tutor forced on you. The name your parents gave you!**_" He replied, and Harry smiled.

"_**It's Harry! Harry Potter!**_" He replied with a smile.

The elder man just smiled at him before stepping back.

"_**Well then Harry, I am Carlisle. The man who carried you was Jasper, the man you saw outside that… that room,**_" He gestured to the man, "_**Is Edward. The other man standing over there is Emmett. This is Esme, my wife and their mother. That is Alice, Jasper's girl friend and that is Rosalie, Emmett's girl friend.**_" He introduced everyone gesturing to each one. Harry smiled at everyone, and then turned to Edward.

"_**Where is your lover?**_" Harry asked bluntly. He looked around, and upon seeing no other human, he turned back to him and asked him innocently.

"_**Do you like one of my pets? I shall convince Carlisle here to arrange for a marriage!**_"

He said brightly, causing everyone to choke on air and burst into fits of laughter. Edward just blinked at the exclamation. When he finally understood what Harry had just implied, he turned to glare at him with narrowed eyes. Harry just looked on at him innocently.

Carlisle, knowing that this was going to lead to either a childish bickering, or a big fight, placed himself in front of Harry, successfully blocking Edward. He looked down at him and smiled. But then, remembering something, he frowned and his eyes were filled with emotions. They were swirling with hate, guilt, remorse and other similar emotions, and his face hardened and his body stiffened at whatever the memory he was remembering. Harry wondered why, and got his answer soon.

"_**Harry, I know you probably hate me for not helping you, and for kidnapping you like this and scaring the shit out of you too, but will you stay with us here? I didn't think about it. If you wish, I will have Jasper track your adopted family and leave you back with them.**_"

Carlisle stated, and Jasper just shook his head as he read his father's emotions, however, he could not understand those of this child. He was Happy, yet sad. He felt secure, yet unsecure, and he was scared; very scared. And the force of his emotions took Jasper by surprise. He moved forward and placed his hand on the child's shoulder, as he looked at Edward questioningly. Edward looked sad but said nothing, just gazed the Harry silently, for some reason believing that he would deal with it himself.

'_I am so happy to finally be out of that place, out of the clutches of those… those people, my guardians. I am happy to be with these people, I know they wouldn't hurt me, I just know it, but what if I am wrong? What if this happiness won't last long? What if they decided to leave me back with my guardians? From the knowledge I have, they are not my guardians, they cannot have me under their care if those people come looking for us. Or what if though I am secure with these people, they find me useless and send me back to my guardians, or even worse, to my uncle and aunt? I don't... no I won't go back. I can't go back. I don't want to go back…_'

Edward could hear Harry's thoughts too clearly and after sometime, he blocked Harry's thoughts, instead focusing on Carlisle's thoughts. Harry's thoughts were so strong and sad for him to hear. He knew, though he was a vampire, if he heard any longer, he would end up crying himself too. Carlisle's thoughts did not help him a bit, they were too sad, if not as sad as Harry's. He wondered how Jasper was controlling himself, if their thoughts had this effect on him, having to feel their emotions would have been worse, beyond bearable.

Jasper knew, from the emotions rolling off of everyone, that they were all sad, and the emotions of everyone combined hit him even harder, and he could no longer control himself. He started sending calming waves towards his family, and the Cullen's immediately looked at Jasper with an apologetic look, but Jasper simply shook his head. Once he was sure his family was under control, he turned to Harry, whose feelings were still massive. He took a deep breath and sent large waves of calmness towards him, the force of which caused Harry to feel weak at the knees and stumble and fall.

As fate wouldn't side with Harry, he happened to fall on the ground and pierce himself with a rather sharp stone, causing the unexpected immediate flow of blood in front of a house full of vampires. The vampires all stiffened at that and everyone stopped breathing to stop from breathing in the scent of the child, but before Jasper could stop, he smelt the scent.

While the others backed away, and Carlisle pulled away a rather thirsty Edward who hadn't hunted in a while, Jasper was left unguarded and he stepped forward towards Harry and placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry looked up at him and buried his head in Jasper's chest to stop the tears of pain from flowing. He then looks up as Edward runs into the forest to hunt and Alice moves towards him, holding her breath, to pull him away.

He obliges and lets her pull him away. Once he was outside the first layers of the trees of the forest, he looks back at Harry to see that he is now being carried inside by Carlisle, so that he can treat him. I shake my head and run into the forest. I run deeper and then stop when I catch the scent of a deer. I run towards it, following its scent and feed from the deer. I continue to run and kill three more deer's to make sure that I would be able to control myself even if I am placed in front of a puddle of blood.

It doesn't matter that I know I wouldn't hurt this child. Doesn't matter that though the child's scent is strangely appealing, I would be able to resist it, though I now know Edward can't. It doesn't matter that I wasn't hungry and that I had just hunted a few hours back. I wanted to take no chances with this child. And hence once I was sure that I was under total control, I ran back towards the house.

I could strangely feel the house pulling at me, as if it was calling for me, and I ran towards it faster. Once I got closer to the house, I could feel the pain rolling off of Harry, and as I moved closer, the sobs issuing from him became louder and louder. I ran straight inside the house and rushed upstairs, for the time, ignoring the presence of other vampires into the house. Once I was in the room, I looked to see that Harry was now asleep, though he still was in pain.

I sent him soothing and calming waves as I stepped closer to him cautiously. Once I was sure that his injury was in fact healed and covered, and that it was not affecting me, I stepped closer to him and sat on his side, my hands running soothing circles on his back on its own accord, as I gazed at his peaceful face as he slept. As if he could feel my presence, he snuggled close to me and grabbed my hand tightly, and by his emotions, I could tell that he was feeling insecure, and I shook my head.

"_**I would never leave you Harry! None of us would ever do that. You are now our family. You need not fear us leaving you. Knowing Carlisle, it wouldn't happen even if you begged for it, once he knew how you felt. And as the icing to the cake, he hates your relatives. He ain't ever gonna send you back to them if he can help it! You have nothing to fear. We are your family now, and we love you!**_" Jasper told to him soothingly, and Harry, as if he could hear him, in spite of being asleep, snuggled even closer to him.

Jasper smiled at Harry and kept muttering soothingly to him, as he simultaneously sent calming waves towards him. He was soon joined by Edward and the others and he smiled at them. They moved towards Harry to examine him, and Jasper tried to move away, but the grip of Harry on his shirt was too hard to break away from. Though being a vampire, it would have been pretty easy for him to struggle away from Harry's grip; he knew how the child felt insecure and was sure it would give him negative ideas. He stayed put.

Carlisle soon joined him to examine Harry, and once he was done with his check up, a frown appeared on his face. Jasper could feel the emotions of happiness, concern, love and confusion rolling off of Carlisle, while the others were simply worried. He looked at Carlisle, raising a perfect eyebrow in question. Carlisle shrugged. Yup! Heard right there, he actually shrugged.

"_**He is fine now**_!" Carlisle announced.

Jasper just looked on at him in confusion.

"_**Isn't that supposed to be good news?**_" He asked.

"_**He is not supposed to be fine yet!**_" Carlisle asked, and this time, every single other person frowned in confusion.

"_**Urgh! He just healed very quickly for a normal human is all. But don't worry. He is now perfectly fine. He must be running around the house in another hour or such.**_"

As he said the last sentence, he turned to Esme and directed it towards her. Esme smiled gratefully at him before returning her attention back to Harry. She kissed his temple before exiting the room. The others followed the answer, and as they left I just sat there by his side, letting him to snuggle into me, as I closed my eyes for some time. As Carlisle predicted, I could feel someone tugging at my shoulders after about an hour of silence. I looked down to see Harry smiling at me.

I smiled back at him, before I slowly moved away from him. I really wanted to take no risks in his case. Soon I was away from his grip, and Harry frowned. I looked at him, amused, as the feelings of sadness and disappointment rolled off of him. But soon they were again followed by insecurity, self consciousness and fear. I shook my head at him. But he did not meet my eyes, his gaze fixed on the floor. I placed my finger under his chin, and lifted his head up.

"_**Harry, look at me!**_" I asked softly, when he still refused to look into my eyes. He slowly looked towards me reluctantly. Once he was gazing into my eyes, I smiled. "_**Harry, we all love you. No matter what, we are not gonna leave you. You are now family to us. You do not have to feel so insecure. You are doing nothing wrong, and you surely are not disappointing us.**_"

As I saw Harry open his mouth to speak, I again shook my head, cutting him off. "_**No! You are not a burden to us Harry, and we will never hate you, we will never leave you. Get it into that small brain of yours, will you?**_" Harry looked at me with wide eyes filled with tears. But this time, they were tears of happiness as waves of happiness and love rolled off of him, every hint of insecurity gone. He hugged, and then got up and sprinted off into the house, outside the room. '_I wonder if Carlisle is a seer too._'


	13. going away

The years ran in a blur with Harry always around causing trouble. I wondered how a child could possibly cause so much trouble to a house full of vampires. What had the world come to? But whom was I kidding? It was not normal that a vampire fell in love with a human, a clumsy one at that who hated the spot light. It was not normal that a clan of vampires suddenly turned good. It was definitely not normal that a clan of vampires could care about a child so much, a non vampire child at that.

"_**Jazzzzzyy, save me! Em is killing meee!**_" Harry came running, shouting and hid behind me, shortly followed by Emmett. I watched amused at their tactics. Suddenly Emmett lunged at Harry, and Harry simply stepped away, and Em successfully broke the table, and the next moment Harry was clinging to me with eyes wide, I could feel the fear flowing out of him.

I sighed heavily, but did not comment. "_**Another prank Em?**_" I asked Emmett.

Emmett simply sulked as he nodded. "_**I couldn't hear you Em!**_" I commented, smirking at Harry, as I could feel the fear being slowly replaced by amusement and mischief.

"_**Yes!**_" Emmett grumbled.

"_**What? Couldn't hear you…**_" I stated chuckling, and Emmett glared at me, and opened his mouth to probably shout at me, but he was successfully cut off, though by Harry.

"_**Yeah Em, even I couldn't hear you!**_" Harry stated enthusiastically, eyes shining with amusement and mischief.

"_**Yes, the brat pulled another prank at me!**_" He shouted. If it were possible, he would have been blushing fiercely, and what a sight that would have been. It was times like these when I wished that Vampires could blush, or cry or that we weren't vampires at all, in this case though, it only applied to Emmett. What I wouldn't have given to see him blush.

Harry rushed upstairs then, and then was dragging Alice and Rosalie with a make-up kit in Alice's hand and a camera in Rosalie's hand, and Alice looked dazed, as if looking in the future, and the next moment, her eyes were shining with amusement and mischief too as he let Harry pull her down, though Rosalie still looked confused. As soon as the two were down the stairs and standing with us, Harry ran off again.

He returned a few minutes later, dragging Esme this time, who had a set of painting equipment, and a phone in her hand, looking just as confused. As soon as Esme was standing right next to me, Harry let go of her hand, took the paint set from her hand and handed it to me, and then turned to her with a determined, yet pleading look on his face.

"_**Mummy, call Eddard, please!**_" He gave her the best puppy dog eyes he could muster. I looked at Alice in question, she however refused to give any detail away as she joined the pleading.

"_**Yeah mom, please do as he asks, please!**_" She added, and I couldn't help but look amused at that.

"_**But Harry, dear, you know that he is out with Bella, don't you? We shouldn't interfere them.**_" Esme chastised him.

"_**But I do not want a nephew so soon!**_" Harry exclaimed, causing all of us to burst into fits of hysterical uncontrollable laugher. When Esme calmed herself down enough to speak, she turned to Harry with wide eyes.

"_**What?**_" She asked him. He just smiled.

"_**I do not want them to marry so soon. I must first grow up, enough so that I can take care of a nephew when I have one, and I definitely do not want them to marry before I get to see Bella first, what if I like her more?**_" He asked with wide dramatic eyes, causing us to burst into laughter once again. The child was just impossible. He let us laugh for a few minutes before turning to Esme, with hands folded upon his chest, looking determined and serious, overly so.

"_**Now are you gonna all him, or will I have to search the house for his number?**_" He asked sternly, though his still a bit childish voice did not render his desired effect. Esme looked amused, but nodded none the less. We all looked at Harry with awed expressions. No one had ever managed to convince Esme of something she did not approve. Harry was simply smiling brightly and triumphantly.

Esme dialed the number and handed the phone over to Harry. Harry placed it over his ears, but after a second thought, positioned as far away from his ear as his hand would allow. After a few minutes, Edward did attend the call, and o our amusement, Harry's thought was proved correct, for as soon as he attended the call, Edward had growled into the phone. "_**What?**_" He snapped.

Harry simply shrugged before moving the phone a bit nearer to his ear. "_**Don't growl Eddard! I know you are busy, but I have some work for you, which is much more important, come over quickly, as soon as possible!**_" He spoke in a pleading voice, and then without another voice, disconnected the call, causing everyone in the room to raise their eyebrow in amusement. He then handed the phone back to Esme with a smile.

"_**Harry, its Edward dear, his name is Edward, not Eddard.**_" Esme corrected, but Harry just shrugged, he always pronounced Edward's name like that, reason being it was too old fashioned, which always caused everyone to burst into laughter and Edward to glare, which immediately was followed by a amused look when Harry shrugged. It was then that Edward burst into the hall, running in vampire speed, looking panicked.

"_**What happened? Is someone hurt? Are we having a new member to our family? Did the werewolves disturb us again?...**_" He shot question after question at us.

We all looked at Harry, who simply walked towards me, took the sets of painting equipment from my hand, walked over to Edward and handed them over, before stepping behind me, for safety, I assumed.

"_**Nothing happened, you just happened to be the best painter in our house!**_" Harry exclaimed, smiling brightly at Edward. As we all looked at him with our jaws dropped, Edward simply glared at Harry, and when Harry shrugged, he again had that amused glint in his eyes, as always, before sighing and stepping inside, closing the door behind him.

"_**So what should I paint?**_" He asked. Harry opened his mouth to speak, but then looked at Emmett and shook his head, closing it again, he ran into the house, and returned after a few minutes carrying three papers, with something scribbled over them. He looked at Edward, Alice and Rosalie, as he folded the papers and handed it to them.

"_**Its top secret! Make sure no one sees it.**_" He exclaimed, more like demanded. As they read the paper, Alice looked normal, like she knew what was happening, which she did because of her future seeing ability. Rosalie looked thoroughly confused, and Edward had his jaw dropped with a look of complete disbelief upon his face, which after a while was replaced by mischief.

"_**Rosalie!**_" Harry called to her, and when he had her attention, he nodded. Rosalie nodded back, still looking confused, but stepped forward, and walked towards Emmett casually. As soon as she was close enough to him, she lunged at him and tied him tightly to a chair, and stood behind, to make sure he did not escape. Alice grinned, and without a word, stepped forward towards Emmett. Edward did the same upon getting the command from Harry.

The next moment, Edward was painting on Emmett's face, while Alice was applying make-up. After a few moments they were done, and stepped back, admired their work, and then moved behind to take Rosalie's place, beckoning her to move forward. She did so without question.

She went to stand in front of Emmett, looking at Harry. He smiled and stepped forward, adjusted Emmett's hair and dress a bit, and then once he was satisfied with his work, he stepped back, and looked at Rosalie. She took many pictures of Emmett, as she was asked to, from various angles. She then stepped away to stand next to Esme and me, who were trying very hard not to laugh our heads off. Edward and Alice joined us too.

Harry ran into my room and returned, carrying a big mirror, and placed it in front of Emmett. As soon as Emmett saw his reflection, he paled, then he looked sick and looked at the mirror with horror, and then, gave an ear splitting scream. For there was his reflection, with disheveled hair and dress, Paint on his face, making him look like he was crying, and with make-up applied upon his face, making him look like he was blushing furiously and deeply.

It was then that everyone in the room burst out laughing. Harry moved towards Rosalie, who already had the photos in her hand, ready. He took one and handed it to Edward. Upon his questioning look, he smiled and shrugged.

"_**For Bella! This was a very important work, and a work well performed at that! Should she not see it?**_" He looked at Emmett, who now had wide eyes, and was trying to get off of the hold of the robes, which held him at place. He looked back at Edward. "_**You might want to run away to Bella, before I free him.**_" Edward just took the photo and ran away, an amused look on his face.

"_**Bella is going to love this!**_" He could be heard muttering as he ran away, towards Bella's house.

He then took the others and handed one to each family member, one for himself, and one for the family photo album. He then freed Emmett, and before Emmett could let out a word, he shushed him.

"_**That was how you would have looked if you were human, when you admitted I pulled a prank on YOU!**_" He then smirked at Emmett's horror stricken face.

The two week passed in a familiar flow, full of pranks pulled by Harry, and it was soon time to return to school. It was really strange that Harry had become so comfortable with us over the years. Everyone knew we did not want to, other than probably Edward, but there was no escaping it. We has already taken a week of holidays due to the sunny days. We told our goodbyes to Harry and Esme, and got in our car.

Edward drove away to Bella's place, while we all drove straight to school. In just an hour, we already started missing Harry, terribly. After a month or two, Alice had a vision during lunch time, when Edward was sitting with them, instead of with Bella, which was a rare occurrence. She was practically bouncing over her seat, and Edward too smirked, as he read the vision from her mind, but they refused to let out a word to any of us.

It was soon Bella's eighteenth birthday, and after many requests and tantrums from Harry, they finally accepted to let him meet her, finally. Bella did not know about Harry at all, because the Cullens feared that she would get the wrong idea about Edward, but after that was cleared, they wanted to wait for a proper time, which never arrived due to the attack that took place the last year. So after many requests, they finally accepted.

Bella arrived in the evening, for a party which was surprisingly planned by Harry, and it was good too. Upon questioning, he muttered a single word. "_**The Dursley's!**_" After having lived with Harry for over six years now, they knew everything about his life, that he could remember. They all smiled when the doorbell finally rang, and Harry practically ran to the door, at a speed, which certainly was not human speed.

He ran at vampire speed, but they thought nothing of it, after the many angry outbursts of Harry. They knew he was not a normal human. As soon as the door opened, Harry practically launched himself at Bella.

"_**Finally!**_" He exclaimed. Bella looked clearly confused and taken aback. She looked at the Cullen's for an explanation, for she clearly had no idea who this kid was. But without giving the others a chance to speak, Harry began speaking again.

"_**Hey! I am Harry! Their newest adopted brother. Sorry I could not meet you earlier. They did not let me to, said I had to wait for the right time, to not send you into shock. If you did not go into shock upon figuring out that they are all vampires how would you go into shock upon knowing that they are raising a human child? Highly unlikely! But they never seem to use their brains. I wonder if they even have one. Oh, how foolish of me to forget it!**_"

He got up and ran into now his room, and came back with a huge bundle, too huge for him to carry, and as expected, tripped over himself, letting the bundle fall over him. He looked like he could cry out of pain, but nope! He controlled himself. He looked at Emmett, who chuckled as he picked the bundle up, before helping Harry up. Harry simply ran back to Bella, snatched the bundle from Emmett, handing it over to Bella, and then smiled at her. "_**Harry Birthday!**_" He exclaimed. Bella blushed, furiously.

It was then that Esme stepped forward and pushed Harry away. "_**Let her step in Harry! You have the whole evening to speak to her!**_" She smiled at Bella, beckoning her inside. She then turned back to Harry. "_**By the way, Harry dear, do you like her? Approve of her?**_" She asked, and Bella looked instantly nervous and scared and taken aback. I had to send waves of calm towards her.

"_**Like her?**_ _**I absolutely love her!**_" Edward's eyes widened immediately, and Esme chuckled. But Harry continued, ignoring them. "_**Pity she is too old for me! I can't marry her! I guess Edward can though!**_" He grumbled.

Everyone broke into fits of laugher and Bella blushed furiously. The rest of the day went by quickly, but the end was not as expected. Bella managed to prick herself, and I went out of control and almost attacked Bella. After I was under control, I ran away. After a few days, Edward had the others leave Forks, and we left.

But still, I didn't have any trust in myself anymore and ran away, after dealing with an angry Alice. Harry was absolutely heartbroken, but he knew not the reason. But before I could return, Harry got a letter from some wizarding school, and left. While the Cullen family was surprised by the sudden appearance of a giant, claiming that Harry was a wizard, Harry was not in the least bit surprised. He knew it already from his time with the dark lord, you see. We were both glum and sad to say the least and missed each other. I spent the days in longing for Harry to return, barely aware of my surroundings.


	14. Introductions

**Harry's point of view:**

I had been accompanied to the station with my entire family, though Jasper was still missing. He never showed up since that fateful day of losing his control, but I highly doubt it was his fault, but I did not want to address the situation anymore that he did. If he needed to talk, I would be there for him, but I did not want to force him into any talking. He had to come over this by himself.

Harry told his goodbyes to his family and stepped into the train. He could still remember shopping for his wizarding school requirements, things he did not already have. He had been out with a man who looked like a giant for shopping, and if he could be honest with himself, he wouldn't deny it, he hardly knew the man, but he already loved him, with all his heart. This giant man's affection and love had strangely reminded him of the doctor he had spent a week or two with.

He however wondered how the school knew that he no more lived with his aunt and uncle, but whom was he kidding? They were wizards and witches after all. Anything was possible in their world. If he were being truthful, and not lying to himself, he know he wouldn't be surprised if someone told that a dead man could be resurrected… or had been resurrected.

He walked through the compartments of the train, looking for an empty one and upon finding one at the end of the train, got in. He placed his trunk in the compartment and proceeded to place the cage of his owl, Hedwig, and she being as smart as she is, flew back to the Harry when he was just outside the station. He wouldn't hide it, he absolutely loved the snowy owl, and the owl seemed to have similar feelings too.

As soon as he was inside, Harry closed the door to his compartment, opened the cage and let Hedwig fly out. He hated to keep him caged. It reminded him of his own time in the cupboard with his uncle and aunt. He knew how it felt to be caged in, and he wouldn't have his owl feeling the same. The owl hooted appreciatively and perched on Harry's shoulder as Harry stroked it. It then flew off the window.

Harry watched as his owl flew off the window into the sky, its size getting smaller and smaller, the owl flying farther and farther away, until it disappeared. He sighed and then rummaged his book for some book to read to pass his time. He was pretty sure he would not be disturbed, for no one ever liked him. He had many examples for them, the biggest ones being his aunt, uncle and cousin. He sighed and went back to his book.

A few minutes later, he could hear the door to his compartment being opened, and he looked up from his book to stare at a head peeking into the compartment. Once the eyes of the… head… landed on him, I smiled at him and opened the door just a tiny bit wider to reveal his figure. He is rather tall and thin boy, with freckles on his face, blue eyes and red hair. He smiled back at him.

"_**May I share this compartment with you?**_" The boy asked as he stepped inside and closed the door again.

"_**Of course!**_" Harry replied with a smile. The red head smiled and sat at the seat opposite to Harry. Harry remembered the man from meeting outside the platform. His mother had been the one who had explained to Harry about how to enter the platform. He remembered that the other members of his family too held the same red hair. He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard the boy speak again.

"_**Hey, by the way, I am Ronald, Ronald Weasley. Call me Ron!**_" He introduced himself. Harry smiled at him.

"_**Hi Ron! I am Harry, Harry Potter.**_" He replied and saw as Ron's eyes widened and he gaped at him. After a few minutes however, his eyes wandered to his forehead and then his face formed a frown. He looked back at Harry. Harry furrowed his brows at the sudden change in expression, but did not comment. The boy, Ron, stared a little longer, before finally speaking up.

"_**You say you are Harry Potter?**_" He asked him. Harry raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"_**Yeah, that's what I said. Is… is something wrong? If you don't want to, you don't have to sit with me. I…, I will manage, I am used to loneliness.**_" Harry spoke up, but his eyes betrayed his hurt. Ron's eyes widened.

"_**No… No! I didn't mean that. It's just that… Oh never mind! So… tell me something about your parents, The Potter's!**_" Ron asked excitedly. Harry just shrugged.

"_**I… I don't know anything about them.**_" He admitted, looking disgusted at himself, with a slight fear of Ron's reaction, and Ron caught it before he could compose himself. However, he did not comment.

"_**Not even their names?**_" He asked with wide disbelieving eyes.

"_**No,**_" Harry shrugged, and looked sad. He felt a hand on him and looked up to see Ron place a hand on his shoulder. As his eyes met Ron's blue eyes, Ron smiled at him.

"_**It's alright.**_" He answered with a small smile, and Harry smiled back. He already liked this guy.

The rest of their train journey passed rather uneventfully. Harry told Ron about his time at his relative's place, about him running away, about his uncle finding him and the car accident. About the doctor and the orphanage. About being adopted by some wizard, and learning spells, about destroying shops and houses and torturing others, about him being kidnapped, and his present family.

The way he spoke about them, there was no doubt that he loved his family and the doctor who had healed him. And also that though he loved the wizard for saving him from that orphanage and its abusive children, he hated him at the same time for making him a part of his plans, for making him a weapon of destruction, and for making him kill and torture other people. Ron could also see that he missed Sam, Tom and Diana.

But what Ron found was funny was that Harry did not even know the name of the wizard who had adopted him from the orphanage, for he used to call him '_sir_' which was pretty intimate, almost like this was a dark wizard, and by the sounds of it, he was. In return, Ron told him about the Weasley family, a bit about the wizarding world, and the second downfall of the dark lord, whom he addressed as '_He-who-must-not-be-named _or _You-know-who_!'

Harry, for one, though knew that for some reason, Ron did not believe him. For some reason he knew that Ron found it hard to believe that he was Harry Potter, though he did not comment on it. And he also kept glancing at his forehead, as if willing some animal to erupt out of it. Harry shuddered at the thought of it. Not that he did not believe it was possible, for the place where he was headed to, anything was possible, but just the thought of it was disgusting.

As the train drew closer to their destination, Harry put on his Hogwarts robes and saw Ron doing the same. He let his thoughts flicker away to Jasper just for a moment, but as soon as his thoughts wandered away, he summoned them back. There was no way he was thinking about him now. He reminded himself that he was supposed to be mad at him, for not only did he leave them, but neither did he know that Harry was going away to some Witch and Wizards boarding school, nor did he come to see him off. Harry was determined that Jasper was in for a hell of a yelling match.

As soon as the train pulled up at the station, Harry got a silly grin on his face and got off the train, Ron following him. As soon as he got down, the first figure to capture his eyes was that of a huge giant man. Harry broke into a wider grin and ran and swung his arms around his middle. Hagrid laughed at Harry and picked him up to give him a proper hug. As soon as he was down, Harry was dragged away by Ron behind the first years who were now following Hagrid.

Harry followed Hagrid and the other first years over to the lake. He was not a bit surprised by the fact that Hagrid needed an entire boat all to himself. He just shook his head at his new friend, Ron's expression and got into the boat right behind Hagrid and ushered Ron over. Ron smiled and got in, and they were soon joined by two more first years.

However, as soon as the boats were full and every first year was seated, it started moving on its own upon Hagrid's shout of "_**Forward!**_", and this time Harry was surprised because no one was rowing. He looked at Ron with wide eyes, and he simply mouthed the word '_Magic_' and Harry smacked his head at the obvious reason. How could he be so silly as to be shocked by automatic boats when he was going to study in a school where crazier things would be happening around him? He just smiled in realization.

As soon as he got over his shock, he looked at his two companions whom he did not know. One was a pale girl with bushy brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, while the other was a boy with a light skin colour, who was short and plump and had a round face. They looked warm and friendly; Harry assumed and smiled at the thought of having more friends. He noted the book in the girl's hand and was glad that there would be someone who was a bookworm like him in his year.

"_**Hi, I am Hermione Granger, and this is Neville Longbottom.**_" The girl introduced herself and the boy. "_**And you are?**_" She asked after a moment's silence.

Harry and Ron smiled at them warmly, and while Hermione smiled back too, Neville gave them a shy smile after a moment's hesitation and insecurity. Harry figured out he would be a shy person, much like how he was.

"_**Ronald Weasley. Call me Ron.**_" Ron introduced himself with a huge grin on his face. Harry just chuckled at Ron's enthusiasm. There was no doubt that he was excited to go to Hogwarts.

"_**I am Harry, Harry Potter. You guys can call me Harry.**_" Harry introduced himself politely. However as soon as those words left his mouth, Hermione let out a gasp while Neville's eyes snapped to his Forehead. A moment later, Hermione too followed Neville's action, staring right at Harry's forehead. However, after a moment or two, both of them frowned and while Hermione looked at Harry suspiciously, Neville just glared at him.

Harry, feeling uncomfortable under Neville's glare and Hermione's stare, looked down at his feet. He however did not miss Hermione snapping out of her trance, and elbowing Neville. He however ignored both their previous and present action, and feeling uneasy under their suspicious gaze, moved his eyes to his surroundings, and that's when his eyes landed on the castle, and his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

"_**I am going to live here?**_" He asked in a whisper, his eyes still wide. Ron chuckled at his look.

"O_**f course you are going to stay here. We all are!**_"He replied in a dreamy voice. But before Harry could reply, the boat had already stopped. Harry hopped off the boat with a dreamy look and Ron just shook his head at him. Once the boats stopped at what looked like an underground harbor, they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles, following Hagrid to the castle.

They clambered up a passageway in the rocks after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door. Hagrid tapped the door thrice and it flew open and a stern looking woman stood at the entrance.

"_**Thank you Hagrid, I will take over from here.**_" She stated.

"_**Sure thin' professor!**_" Hagrid replied and walked away.

The professor ushered the students into the castle and led us in towards a small chamber off the entrance hall. Once all the first years get in, she introduced herself as Professor McGonagall. Instructing them to behave and stay in the chamber until further notice, she told them that they would be soon sorted, and left. As soon as she left, the students all broke into conversation.

"_**Is it true then? What they were saying in the train?**_" A blonde asked from among the crowd. "_**Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts?**_" He continued, and the students broke into conversation, muttering anything and everything they could about Harry; and Harry remained clueless as to how he became so famous. However, the blonde continued, ignoring the whispers. "_**This is Crabbe, and this is Goyle. And I am Malfoy.**_" He then started walking forward towards Harry, "_**Draco Malfoy!**_"

Ron started sniggering at the name, and the blonde, Malfoy, turned to glare at him. "_**Think my name is funny do you? Don't even have to ask yours. Red hair, hand me down robes, you ought to be a Weasley.**_" He sneered. Harry immediately thought that he did not like this kid, whoever he was. He went on to lecture Harry on finding friends in a better wizarding family than the one from which Ron friend.

"_**-I can help you there!**_" And he held out a hand towards Harry.

Harry simply stared at the hand, contemplating what to say, for he knew not to judge others by their first impression. He had learned that when he was adopted from the orphanage, and while he hoped to have a happy life, his life had become hell, a torture to him. However, before he could reply, Professor McGonagall came back and ushered them into the great hall where the students would be sorted, and where the older students were already seated.

As they walked in, Harry stared around the hall. It was beautiful, if he could say so himself. The hall was filled with tables which were divided in four rows, which he assumed represented each house. There were many candles hanging over head, making the hall an even more beautiful sight. He looked towards the ceiling and stared at it in awe. He had read about it in the book that it was bewitched to look like the actual sky, but it was beautiful to actually see it none-the-less.

"_**It is bewitched, to look like the ceiling. I read it in Hogwarts A History!**_" Hermione stated, catching him staring at the ceiling. He just nodded with a smile, and proceeded towards the front. Harry's jaw dropped open when suddenly a hat placed on a table he had not noticed before started singing. He was shocked if he could say so himself. Once the hat finished its song, the hall had applauded in applause. McGonagall then stepped forward holding a long parchment which was rolled up.

"_**When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted.**_" She spoke, and the hall grew deadly silent; the first years due to their growing nervousness, and the older students due to curiousness and anticipation. "_Well, let's get this started!_" Harry thought.


End file.
